Learning from the Masters
by Bamboofoxfire Productions
Summary: [Based off the Fanfic "Nightfall" written by Le'Letha] Hiccup and Toothless have always freed their nest-mates from Viking traps, but recently several have been captured alive and carefully unharmed. They don't know what the Viking trappers want from their captive kin, but they know it's something strange, and probably something bad.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **So I recently finished "Nightfall" written by Le'letha(which, you seriously HAVE to read if you haven't yet, it's really awesome. Can find it at the top of my "Favorite stories" list on my page) and I got an idea for it that I discussed a bit with them and asked if it would be okay to do my own sort of spin-off fic based off of Nightfall, so that gave rise to this.

It'll be multiple chapters but they'll probably be super short, and I don't expect this story will be all that long, but there's always a chance I'll get carried away. I'm definitely excited to try the Hiccup/Toothless POV, but I'm sure that'll be a challenge(but where's the fun without the challenge, right?) Anyway, enjoy~

**Disclaimer:**

How To Train Your Dragon belongs to Dreamworks.

Nightfall(which this is directly based off of) was written by Le'Letha. If you read this, please ALSO read her story ^_^ (you'll be very glad you did!)

My own OC's in this belong to me.

* * *

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based off Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

A low rumble like thunder reverberated through the ground and the smell of dust and men and animal sweat tinged the air. The faint wind of momentum blew back brown hair and white-and-black tail alike in their wild charge that had surely unsettled every other animal in the area into fleeing far away.

A hard, steady _Hfff Hfff Hfff _from a large, flared nose blew small clouds of breath back into his face that quickly mingled with the rest of the heavy fog that cloaked the ground. Others sounded behind in a low thrum, just beneath the sound of galloping hooves.

Blue eyes never left the figure ahead for even a second, maintaining just enough distance to keep the beast from whirling around and attacking, but not enough that it could escape. Let it think it could outrun them. He was patient, and more importantly, he had planned on exactly this scenario.

The dragon screeched its fury back at the small hoard of pursuers as it sprinted, wings tucked to its sides rather than spread to fly, but not voluntarily. A long bolas was tangled around its body, pinning its wings and leaving its only mode of flight to run, or to turn around and fight if it tired of the chase.

A rock sling provided a quick cure for that idea however, occasionally pausing to whirl it overhead and let a stone fly, pelting the dragon's hide mostly harmlessly, but startle it into continuing to run with a howl of alarm and lashing its tail to throw off an attacker it thought must be right behind it.

When the dragon strayed from the path they wanted it to follow, another man on horseback cut off its escape, steering it this way or that, into the waiting maw of a steep ravine. Alternate paths were blocked, giving it little choice than to head deeper into the trap.

Having decided they had come far enough, and not wanting this to drag on any longer than it had to, the head rider swung another bolas overhead and let it fly, tangling the dragon's legs and bringing it down hard.

The beast screamed and wrestled desperately, tail lashing furiously to snare anything dumb enough to come too close.

Panting, huffing horses came dancing to a stop, men finding their own feet.

"Secure that tail," the lead rider commanded, walking wide around the fighting dragon. It snarled a panicked warning at him, seconds before blasting fire he was already prepared for, leaping and rolling, back to his feet, and lunging.

Fangs snapped at him. He all but leapt onto its head, his weight forcing its jaw shut. His brows furrowed in concentration as it squirmed, wanting to bite and tear him, or smolder him into ash. Perhaps both.

"Muzzle it!" he ordered to those who were not already busy restraining the tail and rest of its body. Leather straps and metal buckles were brought over, securing them over the monster's head so it could neither bite nor spew flames, all but entirely secured.

He let the dragon's head go and straightened up, staring at it and the handiwork of his hunters appreciatively. This dragon was a nice specimen, fit and strong. It would do well for what he had in mind for it, for however long they had it.

Blue eyes slid to his men, many of them waiting on his orders, despite that he was of the smallest build between all of them and one of the youngest.

"Retrieve the cart. We take this one back with us as well." The Norsemen that surrounded him immediately jumped to do as they were told without hesitation. He wasn't entirely fooled by their willingness to work and follow commands, however.

Certainly, they thought this idea to be crazy. Idealistic, intuitive, and creative, certainly, but just as crazy as all those other things. Even his father had been skeptical, thinking this idea of his was somewhat foolish, but perhaps unique and unexpected enough to work.

Both of his parents had often said he was ahead of his peers even as a child, thinking of things beneficial to not only their tribe's survival, but enhancement, that no one else before him had even fathomed. Everyone was often wary of his strange thoughts and the things he came up with, but none doubted that he would make a great Chief exactly because of it.

To him, what others failed to see seemed so obvious. While _they _had been unable to fathom coming to the conclusion he had, he had trouble fathoming how they _hadn't_.

Dragons were a nuisance for all of those under the Viking name. That was a matter of fact. Most of the pain of dealing with dragons was for mainly two reasons; fire and flight. Flight was the most troublesome out of the two, because how could you kill or fight off something you couldn't even reach?

In all retrospect, his tribe was lucky. Dragons were only the rare minor nuisance, though he had heard other tribes had far worse luck, even being wiped out entirely by dragons in some areas. What they lacked in dragon troubles though, they earned back in warfare with other tribes. That was far more troublesome.

The idea had first come to him when he was young, but now he was fully realizing that dream. If something as big as a dragon could fly, then surely so could they. The thought was tantalizing, and the tactical advantage over other tribes was deeply motivating to make it a reality.

Making it reality was the trick, though.

With reluctance, his father had granted him a knar and his own crew of nineteen to accompany him on this "expedition" of his. He could not spare any more with the constant threat of other tribes ready to wipe them all out at any opportunity.

The other Vikings brought a flat cart from further down the canyon and loaded the dragon onto it, tying it down with chains. It hissed and growled at them with nervous anger, but it went unheeded.

Their work was interrupted with a roar that didn't belong to their captured specimen however, another one appearing as they were hitching some of the horses up.

Someone barked a warning, "Dragon!" that had everyone scrambling for either a weapon or a sling. The beast snarled and flew downward, aiming for the one chained down, likely a mate or sibling to it, but was pelted back by a shower of stones and brandished weapons before ever getting close, and then narrow space of the canyon provided little room to maneuver.

The captured dragon whined and howled, the two beasts chattering to each other. With a frustrated caterwaul, the newly arrived one wheeled around and disappeared into the sky hurriedly, easily repelled. Men cheered victoriously and waved their weapons as though taunting it, celebrating their easy win, but the younger Chief's son was silent in observation as he watched it flee.

"Do not celebrate too soon," he warned, the noise dying down slightly, his words met with confused looks. "It might only be going for help. Hurry up, and move this dragon back to our camp. If it does plan to return, let's not give it the chance to find us still here."

There was a moment of doubt, some looking as though they wanted to argue, but they obeyed and carried out their work solemnly. None of them were dumb enough to question his caution, not wanting to face more dragons just to defend one if it really did plan to return with the rest of its nest.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** This was definately not easy to write but I'm hoping that it came out at least somewhat decently lol Enjoy~

* * *

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

It has been many days and nights that some of Hiccup and Toothless' nest-mates have gone missing where no one has seen.

Sometimes dragons left the nest and didn't return because they did not wish to, but most of the time, it was because they were old and tired or _sick bad sick_ and soon to die and did not want death to snap its jaws on its other nest-mates.

Other times they did not mean to stay away but something hunted them and won, but such a thing was rare unless it was an enemy dragon that was strong and wouldn't settle for peace.

And then there were _pfikingr _humans who hunted and trapped their kind. Traps were nothing new to the dragons. _Pfikingr _and dragons had been enemies forever, and the dragon pair had been freeing their nest-mates from them with Hiccup's skilled paws as long as both could remember. Many times they disabled traps before most could even be sprung, the other dragons finding and telling them where to go when they spotted nasty traps that wanted to bite or snare or tangle.

The strange disappearances were making many dragons worried and scared. None of the dragons that had gone missing were old or _sick bad sick_. Most were young and strong and some even had hatchlings to watch.

Some dragons had reported traps, but they could not find their lost nest-mates, not even a lingering scent near any of the traps, and in some places, even human stink was stale and almost non-existent, like they had forgotten their traps and the dragons they had meant to catch.

Already the morning and noon had been spent with many dragons searching as they hunted and patrolled their nest-territory. Hiccup and Toothless had wanted to search as well, worried for their lost friends, but Cloudjumper was wary to let them leave far without knowing what was making their nest-mates vanish, only to check that there were no dangers close to the nest.

Once they had assured that nothing threatened to come inside, they'd busied themselves with hearing other dragons report nothing unusual, and then try to console a nest of hatchlings that chirped and wailed for their parents. They were not among the hatchlings whose mother or father had not come back, but even they were knowing of what was happening and frightened for any length of time they were left alone while the pair hunted.

Dragons didn't normally leave hatchlings all alone. It was unnatural. One of the pair always stayed while the other hunted, but many pairs recently were unsettled and not sure to go alone, especially if they had to fight off whatever bad thing wanted to take dragons away. Most left now in small crowds until they were sure they were safe, but every so often a pair would leave together.

_Safe safe no sad back soon no scared safe no sad soon back you see_, Hiccup crooned as the hatchlings crowded around him chattering their unrest and need for their parents, needing something to cling to – which just so happened to be him and Toothless.

He continued to warble little comforts and reassurances to the little ones who would not be comforted until their mother returned.

After a time, a recognizable screech of alarm made the two and many other dragons look up as one of the pair returned in a flurry of wings. The hatchlings instantly forgot Hiccup and Toothless to crowd around him as he landed, looking tired as though he had flown a long way too fast, bristling.

They had been able to tell already when he had entered without his mate that something wasn't right.

_Where mate where go mate gone where bad gone where?_

_Human! _the dragon hissed, who they knew as Sharksnatcher. _Bad human bad chase trap take gone trap Skydropper gone bad human chase trap take gone!_

Hiccup was already on Toothless' back and the fly-with by the time Snarksnatcher had finished chattering. _Pfikingr _were something they could _easily _handle and they were _not _going to let another one of their nest-mates be taken and hurt and killed and another flock of hatchlings to lose their mother.

_Where go we fly we find Skydropper we go where go bad human where?_

Sharksnatcher took to the air and they followed, though Sharksnatcher was tired and slow from already flying so far and so fast but they could not find the _pfikingr _and Skydropper without so they had to go only as fast as Sharksnatcher could.

They soared over waves and past sea fangs of stone and small islands with prey-things and other dragons even after the sun went down. Sharksnatcher finally set down on the shore of a forested island to rest his wings, and seemed nervous to continue on the ground into the forest.

_Why no go scared why bad human there not go bad danger ahead?_

Sharksnatcher bristled uncertainly and eyed the woods with caution, chattering nervously.

_Bad danger bad human fast danger prey-no-prey-things hunt fast chase confused scared fast uncertain chase trap bad human fly-with preynoprey-things chase hunt danger fly safe ground no safe danger._

Hiccup and Toothless exchanged a look with each other and couldn't help but share Sharksnatcher's nervousness at such a strange idea.

A prey-thing that _hunted _dragons? _Pfikingr _that ran with hunting preynoprey-things on a fly-with? They had never heard of such a ridiculous notion! It simply couldn't be. _Pfikingr _were slow and stupid and weak and couldn't chase dragons because dragons are fast and clever and strong and could fly and breath flames as well as run. That's why _pfikingr_ needed slow, hidden traps and to be sneaky to catch them with things that bit and tangled and wouldn't let go, and why they had to make sharp fang-things out of metals that they weren't born with like powerful and mighty dragons with fangs and claws.

It was night, though, and _pfikingr _and even most other dragons were bad at seeing in the dark, and the forest was very dark, and Hiccup and Toothless were both very good at seeing even when others couldn't so they were not so worried about _preynoprey-things _that chased or _pfikingr _that ran with them on a fly-thing and they still had their wings if either of them tried to chase and kill them and fire to fight with and they were both _very fast _on the ground and even faster in the sky.

_Safe go we go fly if danger find Skydropper we go find her careful quiet safe, _the dragon-boy and companion agreed. Sharksnatcher was not so ready to agree but crept into the cover of the trees with reluctance, leading the way.

Many small prey-things rattled in the woods or the trees, scared by the prowling dragons, but no hunting _preynoprey-things _or _pfikingr _to worry about as they had first feared. Even their scent was gone and old and washed away, reassuring them that there was not something to fear in the trees.

The forest became bare rock that stretched above with a narrow path between that was small enough for a dragon to walk with wings in but not fly through well.

Sharksnatcher refused to walk through, wings rested enough now to take to the air, and they soared over it. The path in the rocks cut deep and long, making a path, like trails made by wood-bugs that made their nests in dead trees and ate tunnels all through it.

_Here here mate trap chase here, _Sharksnatcher crowed, landing on a ledge above the ravine, the two young dragons landing next to him and peering down into the dim light. _Gone Skydropper gone sad hurt lonely sad gone where gone?_

They settled down and watched to see if any _preynoprey-things _or _pfikingr _came through, wary of a trap, but the night was silent and still.

_Curious wary trap maybe wary alert trap question go no go? _they warbled uncertainly, before starting a slow, cautious crawl over the edge and hovered down to the ground. They listened and watched for danger but nothing moved or made noise other than Sharksnatcher chattering _nervous careful careful wary trap maybe yes trap careful_ and neither felt as though something watched and hunted, so they cautiously moved forward.

There were no traps that they could see or smell or hear, but they _could _smell the stink of humans and something else they had never smelled before that was probably the _preynoprey-thing_s that they had been warned about and strange paw-prints and long marks like something small but heavy dragged to make tracks and faint scent of dragon nest-kin.

_Follow we hunt follow you watch warn danger warn watch we follow hunt find pfikingr preynoprey-thing, _they called softly to Sharksnatcher as they began tracking the trail from the ground cautiously, careful not to make noise and silencing their chatter to hunt.

_Yes yes watch warn danger watch yes careful alert watch wary, _Sharksnatcher agreed, keeping an eye on the two and following from above, keeping vigil to warn them of danger they might not see.

The tracks and scent continued for some time and grew stronger in human and _preynoprey-thing _scent as they went, both dragons becoming more wary of their surroundings as they went.

What it led to was the large, open mouth of a cave where a glow flickered from inside. They knew without getting closer that it was the light of fires but mingling with the scent of smoke and flame was also the rancid stink of humans.

Without sound, both had already decided to fly above the stone and look for another way in where they might not be seen.

Toothless spotted what looked to be a promising entrance and dove in, Hiccup trusting his judgment without question. It was a suitable perch, landing carefully in near perfect silence and crawling forward onto a perfect, hidden overhang where they could see _everything_.

The _pfikingr _had made the cave into a nest for their small flock, having set up many of their strange things around a large fire while some made loud noises and ran and pounced around each other in a crazy raucous and others sat on long things made of wood and metal and some of them holding strange _pfikingr _foods that he recognized because he sometimes stole them to taste in the past.

There were also strange things he and his other self had never seen before. Tall, short-furred prey-things with long fur on their butts and hanging in their eyes and down their neck. They were big creatures, at least about as big as his own Toothless-beloved but without wings or a long tail. How did such a creature stay balanced with no wings or tails? It must be just as clumsy of a beast as the _pfikingr _were. Surely such a creature couldn't chase or hunt a dragon!

Some of the strange _preynoprey-thing_'s seemed to hear or smell their presence and _Tt-(click)-th-puh-ss _both became tense as the creatures shifted and angled their ears and flared their nose and looked for their hiding place before a _pfikingr _distracted and touched them and let the two-who-are-one relax again.

He saw the flying-with things that Sharksnatcher had warned of somewhere to the side of the cave-nest, but none on the strange _preynoprey_'s, and larger than the one he put on Toothless_-love_.

As they continued to look, though, they could see none of their kin. There were big _pfikingr _things to the side where it grew somewhat dark though, looking somewhat like cages that some trappers used to keep live dragons they caught and stop them from getting away or fighting.

_There dragons there maybe yes flock there maybe could be? _They wondered quietly. If they were traps keeping members of his flock trapped than he could make easy work to free them, but they couldn't be sure. There weren't many _pfikingr _if it came to a fight. Concepts like counting and numbers weren't a concept for either to care about, but there were only twenty of them or so to account for had he had the concept of counting, and even less of the _preynoprey-things_, not many at all.

His trapped nest-mates that he was sure were kept alive though might be in danger if they rushed in too blindly, because _pfikingr _were _bad _and wanted dragons _dead _and would hurt or kill his kin or him and his Toothless-self without caring for their pain if they were made angry and he did not know where his nest-mates were or if they'd find them or if they were still alive or if traps waited for them to come so they could snare them.

_Pfikingr _were sneaky creatures with their traps but _Tt-(click)-th-puh-ss_ could be sneaky and patient too and if they waited maybe the _pfikingr _got tired and had to sleep like dragons did and if they did then they could sneak by and free their nest-mates and maybe catch the _bad pfikingr_ and the _preynoprey-things _by surprise like the _good great sneaky _hunters that they were.

So they settled down and they waited and when the _pfikingr _were sleepy and unaware they'd pounce and catch them and free their friends from the _bad pfikinger traps_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

Alekt gave a last, appreciative pat to Sangrida's shoulder and left the mare's side to return to one of the roughly put-together feasting tables.

Around him, the men danced a drunken off-beat step and sung their jollies into the night, echoing off the cave walls. Others were less rowdy, preferring to sit and eat as they told each other accounts of their valor against rival tribes and exaggerated war stories from their youth.

It was an older man with a greying beard that he chose to sit with, a few odd lines to his face where hair refused to grow in the wake of several long scars that crossed his nose, lips, and chin at an angle.

"The horses are restless," Alekt reported softly under his breath as he came to sit, picking bread and cheese from his plate and taking a bite of each. When the tame crow on his shoulder croaked demandingly, he broke off a crumb for it to devour, every other piece going to it. "I think we are watched."

The grizzled man glanced at him and took a swig from his tankard, droplets of mead catching on his beard like morning dew.

"And have you got an idea as to what we might be watched by?"

"I couldn't be certain," Alekt shrugged slightly. "It could be spies from another tribe. 'could be a dragon waiting to pounce."

The older male nodded his head slowly. "Seems a bit odd to me that a dragon would only watch and not pounce by now. Dragons aren't the most restrained creatures I've ever had the displeasure of meeting."

Alekt nodded his head slightly, his blue eyes wandering from beneath brown bangs without moving his head. They first scoured the shadows on the ground, but he couldn't make out movement or a shape of anything that hadn't already been there before. They traveled upwards, but it was hard to make out anything in the darkness of the cave's ceiling, where the firelight didn't quite reach.

If something was watching them or waiting to strike, it was well hidden.

"The horses could have simply caught a carried scent on the wind," he murmured, though he wasn't sure he believed the idea. "Still, it pays to be cautious."

"Aye," the man nodded. "It's good instincts. Many a man lacking them has lost his life for being none the wiser." He paused to grumble incoherency in the back of his throat and wipe lingering beads of liquid from his lips. "So, what do you want to do about it? Should we raise the alarm?"

"No," Alekt hummed slowly. "I don't think that will be necessary. Tell the other men that we might have company soon and to be ready if anything appears, but not to change anything they are doing now. If we are indeed watched, then whatever it is, it's smart enough to hide and wait, so it's probably smart enough to notice if we all go on the alert," he decided. "Whoever they are, let them think they can catch us unawares. We'll have the advantage before they even know we do."

The man nodded, easily able to appreciate the well-calculated forethought that came so easily to the young man, where others might be quick to pick up an ax before even knowing if they'd need it.

"I'll be sure it gets passed along," the grey-bearded man assured, rising from his seat and moving to join the group that sat telling stories as if to casually join them.

Alekt returned to eating, another short caw sounding in his ear impatiently and beak nibbling sociably at his lip. He nibbled back and uttered a low warble of affection in return, before distracting it with another offering of food from his palm.

* * *

The festivities faded as the night wore on, not long after Alekt had sent a message along to be prepared for potentially hostile intruders. The songs, stories, and drunken shenanigans were tossed aside earlier than most had probably originally planned in favor of turning for bed.

Many settled down with a weapon ready at their side, though it was hardly a first and wouldn't be the last time a Norsemen slept with a hand still on their sword or ax.

He himself bundled into a blanket of wool and fur on his side, one eye cracked faintly open towards the opposite side of the cave where the covered cages sat. At his side rested a crossbow, just beneath the folds of his blanket, ready to fire if anything showed itself after all.

Soon the only sound that could be heard was the faint crackle of the fire in the middle of the cave, which they had stoked before turning in for the night, and the occasional huff of half-asleep horses further to the side. Nothing stirred, not even the men, some who truly weren't awake – as was apparent by the low snores – and some who were lying in wait for an enemy to appear just as he was.

Then he heard a soft, nervous, equine nicker and a shuffling of hooves, thinking he saw something, faintly, from the shadows on the opposite end. Something moving, though slowly, and near-perfectly blended with the backdrop of shadow-cast rocks. Something big.

_Changewing, maybe? _he wondered curiously to himself. That would be problematic. Changewings were tricky dragons to deal with, on account they could almost appear to turn invisible, with how they changed their colors and shapes.

He quickly dashed the idea, though. Changewings weren't a local species, and this creature didn't move like one. Changewings moved like lizards, in side-to-side leg motions. This one prowled like a large cat on the hunt, stretching long and forward, like pumas he had seen in the far northern mainland, but it was too large to be a wild cat and too dark in coloration, light reflecting the faintest ebony sheen of a night-black form.

For a moment, it melted perfectly into the shadows, disappearing like a phantom. He waited for several minutes before he was rewarded by the silhouette of the beast appearing again, slowly. He could make out a pair of large, cat-like eyes, but too large to simply be a feline. He could almost guess that they were green or gold, but it was hard to tell.

It placed a paw forward, stopped, and waited. Watching. Listening.

When it seemed satisfied that its presence was unnoticed, it took another step forward, and another.

Alekt was steadily making out some of its features. It was a dragon, but small, in the way of most dragons. What it lacked in overall girth though, it make up for in sleek compactness and a sturdy build. Tucked close to its body were a pair of long wings and other fins on its tail.

It wasn't a species he had ever seen before. Apparently someone else had though as he heard a very faint, barely audible, hissed, _"Night Fury_".

He had heard plenty of stories. Every Norsemen from the western mainland to the far, ice-crusted islets across the sea, much further than they were now, had heard of Night Fury's, but rarely any a man had ever actually _seen _one, and most of those that had only caught a glimpse of one jetting away after unleashing a devastating blast onto a village or ship of unprepared Vikings.

_The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Your only chance is to hide and pray it does not find you._

He had heard that more times than he could count in his lifetime, but he had no plans of hiding. A Night Fury was still a dragon, and dragons could be caught, and injured, and slain. Inside the cave with only limited room for such a beast to fly, and having surprise on their side, _they _had the advantage. Such a mysterious, fast, powerful beast was too valuable to simply let walk in and out without even attempting to capture it.

His crow companion gave a low, barely heard croak of alarm, but he uttered a quick, near-silent "_Hush_" before it could carry on into a raucous of cawing and scaring it into either fleeing or fighting.

The beast paused, what looked to be ears or horns of some kind perking and rotating slightly, as if listening, but it didn't turn to flee or look as though it was about to attack. It slunk forward again carefully and came to stop in front of one of the caves where it wasn't covered by cloth.

He thought he heard soft, dragonic vocalizations, but he couldn't be entirely sure. He paused as he saw something else move. At first he mistook it for the creature's wings, but realized it wasn't the Night Fury at all, but something else. Something smaller, on its back.

Was that… another dragon?

It was difficult to tell. The creature blended almost perfectly with the black scales of the Night Fury. Maybe it was a baby dragon? Did Night Fury's carry their babies with them? Maybe they only had one chick, as opposed to most other species that had at least three or four babies per nest… maybe that was part of why they were so rare.

The more he looked, though, the less it looked like a Night Fury. True, it had black scales and claws, but its build was entirely different. It almost looked like the form of a human.

He watched it climb down and noticed that it _was _human. It was a human, _riding _a dragon. Wearing its scales. Touching it and he thought maybe even talking to it like it was a common pet, holding no fear or hostility of it.

But they didn't move right, walking in an awkward, almost animal way. They seemed to know what they were dealing with though, with the cage, and were already working to unlock it and steal away the captured dragons.

By the Gods… he'd never have believed this had he not seen it himself.

The Night Fury sat back and watched the person in dragon armor work, neither seeming terribly concerned about being caught. To be honest, had he not been so perceptive to the sudden nervousness of the horses, and really had gone to sleep unaware of the presence of the lurking Night Fury and rider, they likely would have succeeded in their mission to get the captured dragons out with no one the wiser until morning was in full swing many hours later.

Whoever they were, they knew what they were doing, and they were probably ready to easily flee at the first sign of danger too. He was going to have to ground them before they made any bold moves.

It was with that in mind that he moved very slowly and carefully, positioning and aiming his crossbow at the very base of the wings at the shoulder, and fired.

A second before the bolt landed, the dragon perked its ears alertly, but not fast enough to see or stop him from hitting the mark.

The Fury yowled profusely and jumped, flaring its wings. Twisting. Turning. Trying to attack whatever _thing _had attacked its wing and stayed there. He heard a similar sound from the dragon boy, a sound that wasn't even remotely human, but filled with a sense of alarm and perhaps worry rather than physical pain, running a circle to see the creature's side as it spun in place trying to reach the bolt with its teeth furiously.

Alekt flung the blanket off, rolling to his feet. The other men who had been simply waiting for their cue took the moment to leap up as well.

"Do not let them escape! I want them alive!"

The cave filled with a mix of battle-cries and vicious dragon roars as the men charged and both the Fury and dragon-armored man whirled on them with snarled fangs.

One of the men immediately went skidding somewhere off to the side as the dragon whipped its tail into him. Another was sent sprawling as he was head-butted, charging too close, and the dragon pounced at him with a roar. Seemingly losing his nerve, the man scrambled back on all fours like a crab and ducked behind one of the tables.

Three men at once were ready to attack, but hesitated as the dragon whirled on them, shuffling a few steps in any direction as though debating whether to attack or turn and flee. When they settled for attacking, it was with notable fear and half-assed assurance, getting easily knocked away by the monster's tail or bulky legs.

Those that attacked the smaller man weren't having much better luck. Alekt watched one man dive straight on top of him, only for the dragon-armored man to roll onto his back right as he would have been pinned, all four limbs flipping the man through the air as though he weighed nothing, and then rolling back to his feet, ready for his next assailant.

He didn't have a weapon such as an ax or sword, but Alekt now noticed the clawed gloves on his hand that easily managed to slash at the second Viking stupid enough to attack him head on, quickly gaining the upper hand and advancing while Alekt's own subordinate retreated with shaken resolve.

The third to attack wasn't _quite _as stupid as to charge in from the front, instead coming behind and grabbing him in a bear-hug, but that proved about as effective as most everything else when the rider bit his arm and drew blood. The man howled and foolishly released, screaming in a voice reaching a higher pitch with shock, "He _bit _me!"

He didn't recover from his surprise fast enough to avoid the dragon-man whirling on him and launching another attack with his claws, leaving slashes not only on flesh but leather hide as well as the teeth marks on his arm.

Alekt had had enough of watching his men flounder about so uselessly, whistling shrilly from where he stood.

Sangrida nickered in response and trotted to his side where he mounted bare-back in one fluid motion, kicking her side. She bolted forward obediently, galloping around the tables and towards the fight, already trembling with excitement.

Both intruders heard and saw the pale Norwegian Fjord's charge and snarled, the dragon-man leaping onto the Fury's back and roaring a challenge in unison, both sounding equally dragon and not at all human.

Sangrida faltered a few steps in preparation and reared, kicking outward with both front legs, the war-horse lunging teeth and both hard hooves forward like a big cat attacking smaller prey. Both dragon and rider were seemingly caught off guard and retreated just out of range of its kick, looking uncertain, as though the attacking mare was something completely alien and unnatural and _wrong_.

Alekt took full advantage of their surprised confusion, signaling for Sangrida to keep up her advance and drove them back towards the wall, chattering and growling to each other as if trying to make sense of what in Helheim was even happening.

For a moment they turned to dart one way and bolt away, but Alekt steered Sangrida into cutting them off. Then they tried to slip past the other way, and the horse and rider blocked their escape again.

Having been cornered to the wall and tiring of being attacked and chased, the dragon snarled angrily and reared itself up now, splaying its wings and turning the tables to lunge, a blue fire alighting its throat with a keening screech that warned of it about to unleash the deadly lightning firebomb it was known for.

Sangrida whinnied in alarm as Alekt sharply tugged a fistful of mane and spun around, kicking back as the dragon leapt forward and making its jaw snap back on impact. Alekt and his faithful steed danced several yards away as the dragon fell forward and shook its head dizzily, groaning in disorientation and blinking rapidly.

The dragon-man roared in warning at Alekt as he rode closer, arching his back like an angry cat and curling his lips back to show all of his teeth, though they were woefully much less sharp and intimidating than those of his dragon.

He made an odd series of noises that Alekt couldn't quite make sense of, but he could tell the dragon did as it got a knowing look in its eyes and spread its wings, launching into the air. Whatever plans it had fell short as the black creature shrieked in pain and wobbled in the air, one wing twitching more than flapping and the whole dragon came careening back down onto the top of one of the cages, shaking itself off.

It still had yet to remove the bolt in its wing and, while it may not have been enough to do lasting damage, it was certainly causing enough pain to make flying difficult, if not outright impossible.

The dragon-rider keened a noise of alarm and question, suddenly searching over his mount's form for the source of the hindrance.

Alekt's men had recovered by now, ready to take another jab at taking down the dragon, and ran towards the cage swinging bolas' and chain lassos overhead.

The dragon and rider were distracted by their hunt for the crossbow bolt as one of the men lassoed the dragons neck with a chain, both screeching their hatred and pulling away, trying to get free. Another looped around its swinging tail.

Trying to plant its claws into the top of the cage proved fruitless when the men heaved, trying to bring it back to ground level, since it was covered by a large cloth, instead only further helping the men as the dragon slid without purchase and toppled to the ground.

The dragon-man screamed an animal sound of horror as both dragon and human became tangled in chains and the folds of cloth, fighting vigorously to get free. Several men jumped onto both, not sure what they were grabbing or pinning down but intent on restraining the thrashing beast.

Even as they were, the smaller form of the dragon's rider crawled out from the cloth and snarled rage at them, going to attack the nearest man that had his dragon pinned. He didn't get that far as Alekt lassoed him with a chain around his chest and kicked Sangrida into a slow gallop, pulling the feral off his feet and dragging him several yards.

The young dragon-man only screamed and fought harder for his freedom, struggling with frustrated, scared frenzy. Alekt pulled the chain in and leapt down off his horse, tackling the intruder just as he started to stand.

He heard teeth snap, limbs both free and pinned kicking and struggling to hurt him. Even partially bound, his opponent was strong and fought well, using his own strength and momentum to try and flip Alekt onto his back and bite his neck like a wild predator, as if he didn't even fathom the very _idea _that he was human.

He heard a loud medley of screeches, howls, and roars, but he couldn't be sure if it was the dragon or man, or possible both, as he and the dragon-rider tumbled across the stone floor, both trying to pin the other. He thought he felt a pair of teeth grab his shoulder, but it only managed to bite into leather armor, too dull to pierce through to flesh.

Alekt kicked the feral man off of him and both managed to stagger to their feet, with Alekt recovering only a moment faster to charge in and pin the other man to the wall, just long enough to knee him hard in the gut.

He heard another screech but knew for a fact this time that it was the dragon, its rider gasping breathlessly and crumpling to the ground.

Alekt drew in several ragged breaths and sat over him, pinning the winded stranger with his full weight as he pulled the chains loose, only so he could remove the dragon-claw gloves and twist his arms behind his back, tying them together tight. He didn't want to take any chances and made sure his legs were tied as well. Somehow he didn't doubt, tied limbs or no, that the man would still prove a bothersome captive.

He was still trying to regain his breath by the time he had finished securing the human intruder, sitting up and brushing newly messed hair out of his eyes. His eyes wandered to the dragon which his men had, for the most part, managed to restrain as well, though with continued difficulty as it continued to writhe and growl.

"Get that dragon into one of the cages, and I want it heavily secured to one side of the bars," he ordered crisply. "And you there-" he motioned, to one of the others closest to his age that stood more toward the sidelines. "Embrik, correct? Help me with him."

Embrik eyed the man whom he had seen fight as if he were dragon in all but shape himself, wary to step close.

"_Now_," Alekt commanded impatiently as the dragon-man began to stir, recovering. Embrik huffed reluctantly and jogged closer, helping drag their captive partially upward and towards the cage where the other Norsemen were securing the dragon, tying it snugly against the bars on one side of the cage and muzzling it as Alekt had instructed.

Alekt set the dragon-man down and ordered them to keep him pinned there as he approached the Night Fury. The other men scattered as soon as it was fully secured and watched in aw as Alekt approached it without any fear.

Even tied down, the other men were terrified of the beast named to be the child of death and lightning, and for good reason.

He eyed the dragon with care, and it eyed him back, curling scaled lips away from fangs in an uncomfortable growl of warning.

"Very few have ever seen a dragon quite like you before," Alekt mused. "Much less so close."

The men held their breath, the beast snarled contempt and twitched away, and the dragon man howled his own hatred and disapproval, as Alekt reached a hand out to touch its side. It shuddered a breath under him as if utterly revolted at the contact, what part of its tail it could move smacking the bars of the cage like an angry feline, narrowing faintly glowing eyes on him in pure loathing of his very existence. It clearly wanted nothing more than to snap his hand clear off his wrist if only it could move to do so.

As his fingers traced to the bolt still lodged in the shoulder of its wing, he heard a worried moan from the beast and spiteful hiss from its rider, who thrashed against the other men keeping him pinned.

He grasped the metal bolt where it disappeared into scales and dragon flesh, bracing his other hand around it, and oh so careful, pulled it free. The dragon whined deeply and squirmed like a child trying to stay tough and restrain themselves from crying, but soon enough, the projectile was free and he tossed it aside.

"Bring me a bucket of water and a cloth," he ordered as blood dribbled from the puncture. Several men looked about uncertainly, as though waiting for someone else to do so.

Hartvig, the grizzled man with the claw-scared face, rolled his eyes and went to fetch the things Alekt had asked for, since no one seemed ready to get anywhere near the dragon again.

When he received them, Alekt wet the cloth and dabbed away the blood, checking the wound. It wasn't bad. Likely it would close within days, and be fully healed within a week. Either way, it wasn't bad enough to completely prevent flight even now, once the bolt had been removed, though the muscles would be inflamed for likely another two days and cause it discomfort.

He was satisfied that that was all it had taken to capture the beast though, not wanting to cripple or kill it, despite that he could tell such a sentiment wasn't shared by his men, judging by the looks alone that they were giving it.

He gave the dragon a last reassuring pat, which was met with a snarl, and stepped back out.

"Close the cage, and put him in another," Alekt ordered with a motion of his head to the dragon's human companion. "I don't want them together in the same cage. I'll figure out what to do with them in the morning. I want them given just enough water to survive on, but nobody feeds or touches them for _any _reason until I order it."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **I'm actually really glad I started writing this because, for whatever reason, it's helped me find my muse to work on one of my own original stories(that I hope to one day publish) again. Motivation seems so hard to come by these days, ya?

And I've definitely been reading and smiling at all of your guy's reviews, I promise! I'm just not always good at knowing how to respond ^_^; But I appreciate each and every one of you!

Also, I've been pondering whether or not to have this be before or after Nightfall and finally settled on "after".

* * *

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

There was only one thing that weighed on his mind right now and that was that this was indescribably the very epitome of _wrong_.

Halves were not meant to be separate, they were meant to be _whole _and yes he and his Toothless-_love _sometimes were apart but not like this and not so far and not where they couldn't even _see _each other if they wanted and it was all so _wrong bad wrong separate love gone where love where gone bad wrong where Toothless love go?_

He heard an answer and he knew immediately who it was and that his _beloved _was still alive and trying to talk but didn't sound right and he couldn't see where or if he was _safe _or what the _bad vile hurting pfikingr _had done to his Toothless-half and he couldn't _quite _reach the side of the cage where he could see outside. All but the side with the door was covered by a large cloth that reached all sides, so he only had a narrow window of sight to the outside of it, and to the rest of the cave.

He gave another frustrated tug of the shackles just above his human paws, but all it managed to do was rattle the chain holding them, and he growled lowly in anger. The _pfikingr _had taken his dragon claws and knife and anything else he might have used to break free or unlock the key hole on one of the shackles. The chain was long enough to roam about his cage somewhat, but not reach the far end with the door where two of the humans stood watch, and he had already tested the parts of the cage walls he could reach for a way out, but there was none.

He snarled _bad trapped where love Toothless love where bad angry scared bad restless trapped Toothless where angry restless separate gone wrong wrong wrong wrongwrong you me we us need bad separate bad wrong crazy crazy wrong!_

The closest they had come to being separated like this had been on their attack of the dragon-eater's nest, but that had only been minutes. This time was _hours _and he _couldn't stand it anymore!_

He howled a distressed, mourning wail for his other half's company like he was dying, yanking on the chains that kept him away from his Toothless-half, and the dragon reciprocated his cry with one of his own, the two keening at each other _you me we us need love love separate lonely need scared angry need love love love you me we us love separate wrong scared need together together yes love love love._

One of the _pfikingr _snarled something at him he could only partially make sense of, recognizing "_stop_"but very little else, the man banging on the cage with the gleaming edge of an ax loudly in warning.

The man had still-healing gashes that Hiccup himself had left on his flesh, but he was too agitated to feel smug, baring his teeth in rebellion, snarling back _no free you free us we free bad pfikingr go out free we us free go bad pfikingr!_

The He _pfikingr _growled something but it was lost to him amongst the gibberish of human tongue.

How could he make these stupid _pfikingr _understand when they couldn't speak right? How could he tell them that he _needed _to be with Toothless-_mine _more than anything and how badly being apart was _eating him alive _like a hoard of squirmy white dead-thing bugs that chewed out insides until the dead-things were hollow?

Cold was already creeping in on him like a dead-thing being away from Toothless' heart-fire so long but it wasn't the kind of cold that the wind or the snow brought. It was something worse that made him tremble like it was cold when it was not, but why else did anything shake like this? He knew that dragons shook with fear and sometimes anger when they were _really, really _mad but this wasn't either of those feelings. It wasn't a feeling of building power like anger but it was deeper and more cutting than the greatest fear, and not quite like the horrified heart-pain that had come with _Uh strrrTT _showing him his body was human and his conflicted thoughts of leaving his Toothless-self, but it was just as bad, if not worse in its own way.

It was a bad, hollow, emptying feeling that had him leaning on the side of the cage and sliding down to draw his body close to itself, softly banging the back of his head against one of the thick, flat, metal bars with a low, short _clo-ng_, whimpering his pain quietly _lonely love Toothless love need lonely pain alone cold scared lonely we us need love love hurts lonely where lonely Toothless love need we us Toothless we together always lonely apart._

Eventually he dropped everything else, only repeating _Toothless love love love Toothless love Toothless Toothless_, the dragon uttering back a wrong-sounding _love yes love Hiccup love here love Hiccup here love love yes love yes_.

One of the _pfikingr _yelled something at him again and banged the cage with his weapon for silence, but Hiccup only snarled his dragon mantra louder in defiance, refusing to quiet himself for the _bad hurting pfikingr _that kept him and his _Toothless-heart love us we yes you me we us _apart. They couldn't physically be together but they still had their voices and they would sing their affections for their other half back and forth to each other no matter how angry it made the _pfikingr_ and not lose each other even if they were apart.

The _pfikingr _growled more things he couldn't understand but he didn't care at all, only wanting to hear Toothless' voice answer his and assure each other that even now they were still _together _and still two halves of a whole and not even cages and sharp _pfikingr _weapons could fully stop them from being one-who-is-two.

The two cage-guards gave up their angry noises soon enough and instead ignored the dragon and dragon-man as they chattered and crooned to each other to ease just a sliver of the loneliness of apartness in the dark belly of different human trappings but the _bad cold lonely bad-shaking alone _feelingwouldn't leave.

He faltered slightly as one of the _pfikingr _figures approached whose likeness was burned into his mind like a hot coal on the flesh, the one that had chased and fought he and his Toothless-self on the _preynoprey _and even touched his Toothless-_mine mine! _with its filthy _pfikingr _paws and made Toothless _hurt wing hurt no fly hurt where hurt?!_

Hiccup heard Toothless squawk questioningly at his sudden silence _love quiet why quiet love hurt?_

Hiccup warbled reassurance, but his green eyes and attention were still heavily fixed on the _preynoprey pfikingr_.

He was a smaller _pfikingr _than the rest, much closer to Hiccup's own size, with brown fur on his head and black fur and feathers as dark as Toothless' own scales. The _pfikingr_ rolled his head around one lifted paw with a soft _pop _and yawned dull teeth, regarding the other two with eyes that looked half open, a pale blue like the sky on a cloudless day when the sun shone brightest.

The three _pfikingr _spoke their garbled language to each other and, with a wave of his paw, the smaller _pfikingr _sent the bigger ones away before coming to stand just in front of the cage door.

He spoke but Hiccup could make no sense of his words, though the tone of the voice was enough to make his neck tingle like when a breeze of frost ghosted his skin where his fur did not cover. It was not unnerving in that it was angry or snarly or loud or threatening like most _pfikingr_ or even a _scary mad _dragon, or even like that of the dragon-eater Queen that rattled both him and his other half to the core.

This sound was soft. Quiet. Like the murmur of a small stream that barely trickled by. It was not intensity of feeling that rattled him, it was the lack of it. Dragons and even most _pfikingr _were creatures of bold expression that talked with their sounds and their bodies and eyes and most did so quite loudly and sometimes outright flamboyantly that Hiccup could read fairly accurately within seconds.

This one _pfikingr _wasn't like that though. It was like trying to figure out what a rock was thinking or feeling, which was silly even to the dumbest dragon because what could something that cold and hard and unmoving and completely indifferent to everything be thinking or feeling? But that was exactly what came to mind as he tried to figure the younger _pfikingr _out in reading his face or tone or his body language that seemed non-existent.

When he did not respond at all, still stuck on what he should think of the _not moving stone cold no feeling pfikingr no warmth cold stone wrong stone not moving wrong no feel stone pfikingr_, they spoke again, in that same chillingly frigid voice that seemed hollow of everything living and warm and _feeling_.

The man continued to speak, but he could understand none of it, since _pfikingr _could not speak right, but it sounded even more _wrong _coming from this one in that cold, dead tone that made him question if he was even _alive_. Could dead _pfikingr _still move and talk? He did not think so, otherwise _Uh strrrTT _would not have been so upset that dragons had been fighting and killing _pfikingr _and asked for his help. And besides, the man didn't _look _or _smell _of a dead thing.

But there was still something about his stillness that Hiccup could not read that was _wrong_, like stagnant water that did not move and became murky and filled with bad smells and bad things that would make dragons sick to drink and bad to swim in because of nasty bugs that bit and stunk and burrowed under the flesh.

Hiccup snarled teeth at the cold-speaking Viking if only to garner a reaction, something _natural _and _feeling _that he could actually understand and didn't make him want to retreat from the _bad wrong cold stone no feel no warmth pfikingr_.

They still did not even flinch at his threat display and Hiccup quickly dissolved into chattering nervously _cold no feel no move no warm bad wrong why pfikingr sick wrong sick bad why no warm cold no feel sick?_

He couldn't think of anything else to the _wrongness _that he felt about the _pfikingr _that didn't move and didn't feel and didn't talk like a not-dead thing. He had to be sick. There was something _sick wrong _about him like worse than a dragon that lost its heart-fire and what if that _sick wrong cold sick no feel no warm _thing spread to him?What if he'd spread the _sick wrong cold _to his Toothless-_heart love beloved _and took his heart-fire?!

That must have been why he was feeling _strange bad awful shaking cold bad-shaking cold _and like his heart-fire was going out because that _sick cold wrong bad pfikingr _had _touched _him with the _sick wrong _when they fought and then touched his Toothless-half and now they were both probably going to become _sick wrong _too and were apart and suddenly he _couldn't breathe _and he was pacing _restless sick wrong no sick wrong love Tt-(click)-th-uhp-ss sick wrong bad pfikingr sick wrong scared why sick no no no no Toothless! _and he could hear Toothless shrieking distress back at him _hurt Hiccup hurt confused sick wrong where love love confused safe yes where here love here!_

The _bad sick wrong pfikingr _was watching him as he tried frantically to pull free and run to his dragon-half and out of the trap and fly far and fast and _away _from the _bad sick wrong sick bad wrong wrong _thing and keep flying until it stopped holding onto him and his _Toothless-beloved _and they just had to fly fast and hard and _away_ from those _sick wrong pfikingr _eyes that stared and hunted him even when his body and the rest of his face did not and Hiccup frothed _stay away bad pfikingr sick wrong bad away Toothless we us fly fast far away sick wrong away pfikingr hurt sick wrong Toothless we us Toothless safe love love Toothless love_.

The _pfikingr_ stood still and merely continued to watch, showing nothing, not even a twitch of _feeling warmth heart-fire _only _cold unmoving no feel cold stone wrong sick bad wrong_, and then his lips twitched slightly, moving without sound at first, and then the noise that escaped them made the dragon-man freeze because he _knew _that sound and that sound was a name and it wasn't _his _name but it was a name that was that of his other half.

It did not sound right like how a dragon would speak but it did not sound wrong in the _pfikingr _way either, rolling the sound over and over, sounding faintly more right each time that he did.

"_Kthss… Cthh-ssss. Thhh-sss."_

Hiccup listened, hardly believing it for a moment, before he hissed it back more clearly, wanting to see if the _sick wrong pfikingr _would parrot him.

"Tt-th-ss."

"_Tthhh-ss?_" It still wasn't quite right but it was something close, or at least closer than the wrong _pfikingr _way that _Uh strrrTT _or _St-t-t-t-t-t-kk _say it when he sometimes sees them. He had almost forgotten the chill he felt hearing that voice in lieu of his surprise that not only was the _sick wrong cold no warm pfikingr _picking out what he was saying but that he was saying it in an _almost_ dragon way.

He spoke again in the _pfikingr _way that he could hardly understand but he could pick out _Toothless _and _drakkn _in what he could only guess was a questioning sound, though it was hard to know because his tone was so hollow and soft.

The _sick wrong pfikingr _looked at him for a long moment that he soon figured was expectation, waiting for an answer, asking what he thought was the same thing again with something about Toothless and drakkn.

"Yssssh! Tt-th-ss, drakkn!" He struggled to continue, not knowing how to properly communicate the rest, but maybe this _pfikingr _could speak or understand proper dragon if he tried hard enough to get his message across?! Were there _pfikingr _that could speak proper dragon? He did not consider himself one but he was like _pfikingr _in body but dragon in soul so maybe there were others that were like him and could speak properly? _Toothless safe together we us see together we us free go yes _please _maybe us together free?_

Hiccup could not tell if he understood, concentrating hard to read his face and his eyes and _anything _that would tell him the _pfikingr _understood and would let them go and let him be back with his Toothless_-love _because they were two halves that were only one together and they _couldn't _be apart and he just needed the _pfikingr _to _understand_.

The human spoke to him again but other than hearing something of Toothless he could not figure out what the man had said, nor figure out from that tone that was still cold and detached as rock. His hopes dropped as the man turned away now, moving away, and Hiccup cried out a plaintive wail of protest like a wailing hatchling and yanked at the chains on his paws.

He was sure that the _cold wrong pfikingr _heard him, but did not respond, interacting again with his own kind briefly, probably talking in that wrong-speaking human tongue again. Hiccup huffed in irate frustration and paced for a while, watching the _pfikingr _go about doing their strange _pfikingr _things and forgetting his and his other half's presence, then settled for sitting on the ground and mulling over how he was going to make these stupid _pfikingr _understand.

Unlike before though, he held a small prick of hope that maybe things would not turn out too bad. So far the _pfikingr _had kept him and Toothless and other dragons he heard occasionally shifting or chattering to themselves alive and one of them could speak something that was _almost _like proper dragon speech, even if it was only Toothless' name. Maybe they didn't want to hurt or kill him. Maybe they expected him to do something for them, like _Uh strrrTT_, and he could bide his time for now until he could get his Toothless-half out.

He did not trust that the _pfikingr _wouldn't hurt them eventually, but he at least had a starting point to work with, with the strange _cold wrong pfikingr _that could talk kind-of like a dragon. Just maybe, he could teach him to talk the right way, and then Hiccup could outwit and convince him into letting them free.


	5. Chapter 5

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

"So, Viktor, I believe it was, right?" Embrik glanced up as Alekt appeared at the long table to join the small breakfast group, taking a seat in front of a plate of food, already laid out. His pet crow perched on the edge of it and picked a crumb off the side of his plate, before hopping onto the young man's shoulder. "Tell me, how did you know it was a Night Fury we were dealing with? Supposedly no one knows what they look like."

Alekt started to eat as he waited for the older man sitting beside Embrik to speak, closing his eyes as he chewed as if not quite awake.

"Aye, I've never quite seen one like that. Not so clearly anyway," the man stated, taking a bite of food himself, all the while continuing to speak. "They're a mighty rare species, but there were a few more when I was a lad, an' I've seen and heard them in raids back then. Believe me, I seen plenty o' dragons in my lifetime – blue dragons, red dragons, green dragons, brown dragons, grey dragons, heck, even rainbowy dragons – but the only species with black scales is the Night Fury."

Alekt nodded his head in understanding, satisfied with the answer he received.

"I see," the brunette hummed, munching slowly.

"I'll tell ya, though," the man continued when silence followed. "Of all the strange things I've seen in my lifetime, never have I witnessed a man that rides a dragon. _That _is the oddest thing in all of this."

"Neither have I," Alekt admitted softly. "But there's always a first for everything, isn't there?"

"So… have you managed to get a word out of him?" One of the other men asked curiously. "Other than those god awful animal noises he was making all night, like a damn beast 'imself?"

Alekt hummed idly, then made an odd noise that sounded somewhat like hissed words, but it was hard to be sure.

"Perhaps," he mused finally. "I picked one sound out of what he was saying. _Tthhhh-ss_."

There was a moment of baffled silence.

"And just what in the icy north is that supposed to mean? 'just sounds like an angry cat to me. Sure he wasn't just hissing and snarling at you?"

"I think it's what he calls the Night Fury," Alekt clarified. "He seemed to get excited more than angry when I repeated it back to him, although I'm not sure I'm saying it entirely right. And he also said _drakkn_, which I think is meant to be 'dragon'."

"Maybe you're just trying too hard to find some semblance of speech in that damn dribbling nonsense he snarls. My mongrel back home speaks better 'an he does. Who knows if a dragon says anything, anyway?" The man that spoke grumped and rolled his eyes, taking a swig of mead from his tankard.

"All creatures speak, in their own way," Alekt hummed in that same detached, apathetic tone, like ice itself, that always unnerved Embrik, even listening to it spoken to someone else. "You're simply choosing not to listen."

The man grumbled something incoherent but didn't otherwise argue, only shaking his head in disagreement and returning to eating. Embrik didn't speak, only sort of picking at his food as he watched Alekt out of the corner of his eye.

Alekt had seemingly lost interest in the men just as much as they had in him, instead turning his attention to the crow sitting on his shoulder, which had gone from scarfing down bits itself, either torn off the plate or handed to it, to attentively trying to shove a scrap into its master's mouth with its beak.

He couldn't help but wrinkle his nose slightly as Alekt actually parted his lips and accepted the offering, without seeming to think anything of it. He warbled something to it and it puffed up happily, picking up another scrap and nudging it up to his lips, uttering a wide array of soft noises Embrik hadn't the slightest idea crows could even _make _before seeing Alekt and his bird interact. All he'd ever thought crows could do was make the same _caw caw caw_ sound.

Just like dragons. Were they like this sometimes too? All he'd ever heard from them were roars and snarls and the hiss of fire escaping their jaws. Maybe Alekt was actually onto something…?

Embrik halted those thoughts with a shake of his head. He wasn't _onto _something, the guy was just crazy, that's all! Everything he talked about was crazy. Flying Vikings. Dragons they could use to help Vikings fly, without worrying about all of them getting killed by said dragons. The guy talked to birds and now some deranged dragonic wild man for crying out loud who couldn't speak, only snarl and howl like he were a dragon himself! And now a Night Fury… he'd seen how that monster had leered and snarled at Alekt when he'd gone up and touched it like it was just some… some… common _dog_.

There was something not right about a person who could waltz up and pet a _Night Fury_ of all things without being terrified silly, as if it wasn't the embodiment of death and destruction itself, and well known for it at that!

What was worse, he wasn't sure that even if the man's reckless lunacy got every one of them killed, the guy probably wouldn't even _care_. He wasn't sure _anyone _from Alekt's clan had even an ounce of emotion in them anywhere, from what he'd seen. How were they supposed to trust someone like that, who didn't even bat an eye at all the same things that other sane people did? How their two groups had become allied, even out of necessity, he'd never know. From every angle, it seemed like a bad investment to him.

"So Alekt," Hartvig's graveled voice rang, just before the scar-faced older man appeared, Embrik's eyes following him. He couldn't help but wonder if the old gashes were left from a bear or a dragon. Both seemed equally possible. "Have you decided on today's tasks?"

Embrik almost bristled at how casually and heartedly Hartvig spoke to him, as if he were speaking to an equal of his own tribe. So sure, Alekt outranked all of them while on this trip, but he didn't agree that he _should_, nor that someone of Hartvig's stature and prowess should be answering to him. Did the man have _no _pride at all?

"I have, actually," he hummed, picking the crow off his shoulder with a hand under its breast. The bird fluttered on his hand, then promptly shuffled back onto his shoulder, refusing to leave it despite Alekt's efforts. "I want a hunting party to take some of the horses and head northeast to the marshland. There was a pack of boars there digging for food in the mud about a week ago, and what meat we have left will turn to rancid carrion soon enough. Six men or so should do. You can lead them, if you wish."

The man nodded his head, patiently silent for the boy's remaining orders.

"Three horsemen will patrol the other areas of the island. Have them check the nets and water traps as they go, and bring back anything good that they might have caught. Between all of them, I want every man on the lookout for more dragons, or potentially, dragon _riders_. We don't know if _he_," he directed with his head towards the cage of their dragon-man captive. "-is alone. We need to be prepared if there are more."

Embrik couldn't help but glance around nervously. Could there be more like that first man and his Night Fury? What a ludicrous idea! But so was the idea of even _one _dragon rider. Who had ever heard of such a thing, anyway? And yet, they had one within their possession. How many more could there be? One more? A small band? An _army_? What could they possibly do against an army of dragon-riders though, much less if they also rode more Night Fury's? Huddle in a corner and beg not to be torched into cinders?

"I want four men scouring the side of the cliff and the inside of the cave. Find every entrance and exit out of here. Any path that leads outside, have it sealed. I want nothing able to enter or leave unless it goes through that front entrance, much less trying to surprise us again. The remaining six will stay here with me and hold down our camp."

Hartvig nodded his approval, offering up "I'll see to it that the men get the message," before he went to bark out orders.

"Embrik, you will help me tend the dragons this morning," Alekt told him before he had a chance to go busy himself elsewhere. Embrik couldn't help but give the other, who was only a year older than him, an incredulous look. He wanted to argue, but held his tongue, despite the burning desire to refute such an order. But it _was _an order and he _was _outranked here.

Instead he settled for passive silence, only nodding to show that he'd heard and returned to finishing his breakfast.

Once he was done, he stood to follow Alekt, who hadn't bothered waiting, already having unlocked the first cage, carrying a bucket of fish with him. Embrik immediately paused and second-guessed following with his own bucket of water as the beast inside, a Monstrous Nightmare, snarled at them.

He couldn't help but note that even the crow had favored perching on the top of the cage door, well away from the dragon, and Embrik's eyes nervously shifted to Alekt, who didn't even hesitate to approach, stopping just outside the range of how far it could travel on its chain.

The beast gave him a deadly glare and huffed smoke from its nostrils, but the teen merely crouched down, balancing on the balls of his feet casually, and held out a limp, dead fish.

The beast's focus instantly shifted to the food, nostrils flaring in interest, licking rows of sabre fangs hungrily. It momentarily looked back at Alekt with narrowed eyes, uttering a reverberating growl that rose the hairs on the back of Embrik's neck, expecting it to light Alekt up with flames.

Warily, it crept forward in a low prowl, one clawed wing at a time, continuing to sniff audibly. It extended its neck for the fish, opening its jaws.

_If it doesn't burn him to ash, it's definitely going to take off his entire arm, _he couldn't help but think nervously. Maybe if the idiot got eaten they'd all get to call off this insane trip and go home though. He wasn't entirely sure he didn't want that at this point. What were they even going to gain out of this, anyway?

Ever so gingerly, the Nightmare grasped the head of the fish and yanked it away, leaving Alekt intact. Maybe that was just because it couldn't reach that far. It ravenously wolfed down the fish, and Embrik couldn't help but imagine that that might soon be one of them.

Alekt only held out another fish, the reptile giving him the wary eye, but gaining more confidence. Because that was _just_ what they needed, a dragon confident that Vikings were more of a source of food than they already were for the beasts!

It took a second fish from Alekt, gulping it down. When it tried to snatch a third, he placed a hand on the horn of the dragon's nose, pushing its head down to the ground. The dragon screeched low in its throat and tried to pull its head away, snarling fangs at him. Embrik was sure he could see embers starting to ignite all down its body. Alekt didn't move. The dragon did, arching its body up with head still pressed to the ground.

The young man simply waved the fish past its nose, letting it smell the food. Its eyes were still trained on Alekt for a short time, but its hunger was too distracting, and its eyes started to follow the fish instead, a mournful sound, almost like a whine, rising from its chest. When the dragon deflated and lowered its body again, losing its aggressive threat display, he let its head go and let it take the fish eagerly, choking it down whole.

When all of the fish were gone, Alekt left the bucket of water for it and went to leave, locking the cage up again. The Nightmare eyed him with a mix of wariness and something else Embrik couldn't identify. He didn't try to for more than a few seconds anyway. What else was there to identify in a dragon other than hunger and death? It was probably just disappointed it didn't get the chance to eat either of them _as well _as the fish.

Alekt ordered him to get another bucket of water and fish and bring them to the next cage, where he did the same with a Raincutter. The Sailback and Hobblegrunt after that were only given water, with no attempt on Alekt's part to interact like the first two. The pet crow followed them the whole way, though it kept an even safer distance than Embrik did. He couldn't help but think that between master and bird, the bird was the smarter one for it.

Then they came to the Night Fury.

Embrik could feel its eyes on him before he could see them, piercing green with black slits, and a gleam that told him that this beast was _deadly _and it fully knew it. Even chained immobile and muzzled so it couldn't fire a devastating blast of lightning, it gave him a mighty glare as if staring straight into his soul and snapping its jaws around it.

He only now realized he'd paused in his steps from afar, and the dragon snorted out a loud, almost bellowing rush of air, almost like it was mocking his cowardice. He wasn't sure whether he should feel a rush of embarrassment or relief to have stopped some distance from it. He was glad to have its eyes off him when it shifted its attention to Alekt, those green eyes narrowing and the dragon snarling in a way that Embrik couldn't help but get the impression was something akin to a personal challenge.

Without a doubt, that thing hated Alekt _way _more than it hated him.

"I see you still remember me," Alekt mused in glacial monotone, coming to stand at the other side of the dragon, both eyeing each other down. The beast visibly snarled at him, and Embrik could almost _swear _he saw just a flicker of emotion cross Alekt's face. He wasn't sure what emotion, though if he had to guess, he'd have to say it was probably amusement. "I guess you're still mad about the bolt, aren't you?"

The man reached a hand out and touched its shoulder, delicately pulling back the wound and looking it over with keen eyes. The Fury uttered a noise that Embrik thought must be a roar, but it was muffled by its muzzle-closed jaw, jerking against the bars and making them rattle and clang. He heard another noise but he wasn't sure if it was the dragon or the dragon-man responding to it from one of the other cages.

Alekt gave it a pat on the side like most men did for a common horse, only if that horse was big and had deadly fangs and claws and breathed _death _from its jaws and wanted to _kill _you for touching it.

"It will heal over time, though your memory of it might not fade so easily, I can only guess."

"I don't think you should be speaking to it so casually," Embrik hissed, unable to bring his voice to more than a whisper. "It's not like it understands you anyway. It's just a dumb beast."

He wasn't sure whether the Fury actually _did _understand him or it just didn't like that he was speaking period, pointedly shifting its glare to him now and snarling. He instinctively stepped back, going slightly paler, and the dragon snorted in a smug sort of way. Now he was almost _sure _it was laughing at his fear, however it was that dragons laughed.

"Not everything intelligent is the same or speaks the same as you do," Alekt reminded, in a way that Embrik couldn't help but think he was being scolded like an ignorant child.

Great, now the dragon _and _the loon were making fun of him!

He couldn't help but flush and want to clock both of them in the head, only the dragon would probably kill him if he did it to the Fury, and Alekt… he wasn't sure what Alekt would do, but tales of his clan's brutality before the alliance and the cold disregard for _everything _the other always displayed were enough to make him hesitate.

If Alekt noticed his anger at all, he didn't show it as he circled around to stand in front of the Fury, though the dragon certainly did as it bore into him with those gleaming eyes, as if reading his very mind. Up until its attention went back to Alekt anyway, with far more hateful intensity.

_At least it doesn't look at me like THAT_. He didn't know how Alekt could stand it. Not in the least. If looks alone could kill, Alekt would already be scorched into fragments of only bone left, muzzle or no.

And then he actually _crouched down _in front of its face, where they could both look each other squarely in the eye.

_He's suicidal. That must be eat. He WANTS to get killed by that dragon, _Embrik was starting to convince himself. That or he was having way too much fun staring into the eyes of lightning and death itself while the creature was bound and unable to live up to its namesake, silently taunting it. He could see Alekt secretly – Hel, not even secretly – being that arrogant.

He reached a hand out to touch the creature's nose like he had the Nightmare, and instantly it snarled pure loathing from every ounce of its form. Even heavily chained, its legs and wings bound, it was a breathtakingly, horrid, menacing creature. Embrik almost forgot that it was bound and was ready to turn and flee as it tried to jerk its head away, looking for all the world like it was ready to eat Alekt whole, the end of its tail lashing wildly against the bars in the far back and once again uttering a muffled roar of utter disdain.

Alekt hissed something audibly and the dragon faltered, its eyes widening for a moment. Alekt repeated the sound that Embrik had heard him utter at the table, saying he'd thought it might be the creature's name.

"_Tthhhh-ss_?"

The snarls and roars died into a low, steady rumble, growling deep in its chest, but it looked more confused and taken by surprise than angry, tail still batting back and forth, but more slowly now, as if in contemplation and deep thought.

Its eyes were focused intently on Alekt as though it expected him to do or say something, what Embrik assumed to be ears twitching upward slightly, like a dog brought to attention. After a moment, it seemed to remember itself, what it was, and more importantly, what _Alekt_ was, and shook his hand off its nose, snarling. Alekt reached back out, but it jerked its head to the side, showing off its fangs as best it could, hissing in warning.

Alekt – the _idiot_ – finally seemed to catch the hint and let his hand rest across his lap instead, still staring at the dragon. It turned its head to stare straight at him again as well.

He uttered a sound like before, "_Tthhh-ssss_", and fell back into some of that bird-like, soft warbling, the only time that his voice actually changed octave or pitch from how he normally spoke. It seemed almost unnatural that his voice could go from such a dry, dead quality when he spoke to other people, yet he could exercise such a broad range of noises Embrik himself couldn't even _begin _to make even if he tried when he fell into that bird chatter of his.

What's more, the dragon seemed as though it was actually _responding_, uttering its own series of snarls, hisses, growls, and low, long groans, likewise with much more range than he'd ever heard come out of a dragon. They sounded kind of like angry or irritated noises to him – then again, when did dragons _not _sound angry and vicious? – but like they were more deliberate. Like maybe it was actually _saying _something, and not simply growling dumbly.

Alekt reached a hand out again and he watched the dragon's wary passiveness turn angry again, trying to pull away and snarling. Alekt's hand traced to the leather strap that muzzled it, continuing to croon and clack at it. The Fury didn't relax, but it stopped trying to pull away, glaring distrust at him, and groaned back at him lowly.

"Embrik," Alekt spoke, actually startling the slightly younger male. In an instant, his voice had already become level and emotionless again, one blue eye peering back at him.

"Y-yes?" he stuttered, still struggling with his shock at the very _idea _that Alekt might have just been having a conversation with a dragon. A _dragon_, of all things!

The odd male motioned for Embrik to step closer, and when he did, he did so with great hesitance, eyeing both Alekt and the beast, which was now eyeing him back again. Gods, he _hated _those eyes.

And what did Alekt want with him all of a sudden anyway?

_Maybe he's going to lure you in and let the dragon eat you. Maybe that's what they were talking about. He'd probably like that. He's probably sadistic enough under that indifferent demeanor to enjoy watching a dragon munch on your spine. Maybe he wants to see if it eats by ripping its prey apart or swallowing it whole. Maybe the dragon was just asking him how you taste._

"The bucket," Alekt directed, catching him off guard, though he wasn't sure why that came as such a surprise. He eyed Alekt's outstretched, free hand as though it was something alien, before finally handing it over.

He was quick to step back, watching as Alekt set the bucket in front of the Fury and moved slowly to loosen but not remove the leather strap keeping its deadly jaws shut. The creature eyed him every second that he did so, and Embrik almost wondered if the creature was going to try to kill them as soon as it could open its jaws even a little.

It didn't, instead continuing to stare at Alekt in the same alien way that Embrik had moments before, before tentatively turning its eyes to the partially overturned bucket, and started to lap at it, then eyed Alekt out of the corner of its eye again. Like a dog.

It just…licked up all the water, and then… _didn't try to kill them_. He wouldn't exactly call it 'tame' but it was a lot more docile than he ever expected to see out of the beast. And then, though it did try to pull away and made a noise he was sure was protest, Alekt re-secured the leather strap so it couldn't open its jaw anymore, and then Alekt ran a hand over its head in a praising sort of way before he moved to close the cage and leave it alone again.

"This is a dream," Embrik muttered to himself, under his breath. "I'm just dreaming. None of this is real."

Alekt didn't show any signs that he'd heard Embrik's words, though he didn't expect the other to say anything about it even if he had. Instead, the blue-eyed brunette simply picked up the bucket, and casually started to walk away.

Embrik watched him go for a moment, then rushed to catch up. Okay, so Alekt still completely freaked him out and he definitely still thought there was something intimately _wrong _with him, but he'd just seen the guy do something _no one else _had ever done and he _had _to hear about it.

"How did you do that? You talked to it, right? I mean… what did it say to you?" He flushed slightly as he realized he sounded like an overly enthusiastic child wanting to hear some incredible story he'd never heard before but had been hinted at, but it wasn't every day you saw someone have a conversation with a fire-breathing monster like that!

Alekt stopped and turned to face him. Embrik found himself trying to read his face, but it was just as impassive and impossible to read as always, making him quickly grow frustrated.

"I haven't the faintest idea," Alekt shrugged after a moment of deliberation, non-challant. Embrik gaped.

"You…don't- but…-" Embrik glanced over his shoulder at the dragon, then back at Alekt, motioning behind him at it helplessly. "That what was all _that_? I-I mean… you made some sounds at it, and it made some back, and…" he trailed off, feeling very lost.

Alekt shrugged again, the crow suddenly appearing and landing on his shoulder.

"Improvisation," he answered, idly reaching a hand up to scratch behind his pet bird's neck. The crow croaked a low sound and craned its head down as Alekt scratched it. "Dragons are still animals, like any other. They don't really use words with specific meanings like people, more just… broad implications. Even so, they don't all think and communicate the same way, just similarly, the same as different lands have different languages. I know how to speak and understand crow, not dragon, but they're similar enough that I can basically fake my way through it until I get a better hang of it."

Alekt turned away dismissively, while Embrik couldn't help but stand rooted to the spot, too dumbfounded to move.

So… he'd basically pulled the wool over every one of their eyes. He'd made both Embrik _and _– from what he could tell –the dragon into thinking he could actually speak dragon. Just like that. He was never speaking it at all, and Embrik had never realized, and probably the dragon hadn't fully realized either.

With that revelation, he was also realizing something else.

"I really have to work harder on getting and staying on his good side," he deadpanned to himself, starting to understand why anyone would forge an alliance with such a clan once known and feared for its blatant callousness, hoping that there even _was _a good side to appeal to. He doubted as much. "I'm easily, unavoidably dead if a guy that fearlessly tricky ever decides we're no longer on the same side."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **This took WAAAY too long to write cuz I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to do just this one chapter but I finally managed to pull it off!(Dragon perspectives are so _haaaard_)

I've also got a D Gray-Man/Assassin's Creed crossover(_"White Demon, Red Scribe") _going that I'm absolutely in-love with so far and a DGM/Last of Us crossover and Shadow of the Colossus fic on the way, if any of ya'll are interested in that! The Shadow of the Colossus one is gonna have a character that's sort of related to Alekt, in that they're basically from the same clan, though personality-wise… total opposites C:

* * *

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

Two days was an absolutely _insufferable _amount of time to be separated. Toothless couldn't remember a single instance like this one where he and his other half had been apart like this, he and his dragon-boy having been together since either of them could first remember. They'd grown as hatchlings together and had always been one-who-is-two.

There was some measure of comfort, at least. They were still close enough to talk to and hear each other, though even that was lacking. Half of their communication came from body language, not words or sounds, and it was harder for Toothless to talk back to his other half because of the thing the _pfikingr _had put on his head.

He'd tried and tried and _tried _to get it off, but it held on with great stubbornness, and he knew this was one of those things only Hiccup's skilled paws, or that of the _pfikingr_, could get off, much to the Fury's dismay.

At the very least, the _pfikingr _had taken away some of the binding things that had made it impossible for the Fury to move, other than helplessly, futily wriggling against them, though instead they'd replaced it with another on his neck so that he could only roam a short ways inside the cage itself.

He'd spent a good deal of time pacing about inside it, pressing his body up against the bars, or scratching at them, or simply looking at them, trying to find a way out of it. If his mouth was free, he could have easily broken out with a few charged blasts of fire, but the jaw-shut _pfikingr _thing prevented that.

When he'd finally grown tired of pacing, or just grown tired, he flopped down grumpily, though with no shortage of chattering to Hiccup. Neither of them were at all content, much less happy, with the situation, and neither did anything to hide it between crooning and warbling of _us yes love love yes here safe here love love love you me we us love here safe yes us yes_. The only time they stopped talking back and forth was when either one or both slept. Occasionally they would chatter with other caged dragons as well, confirming that none of them were hurt or being treated badly, which was a relief, but also confusing.

At the moment, Toothless was left in silence as Hiccup slept and the other dragons kept their voices to themselves, though what they were doing, the male dragon wasn't terribly sure.

He'd settled for splaying out along the floor of the cage, which had plenty enough room to do so, not counting his tail and wings if they were stretched to their full length, eyes closed but not really asleep, merely thinking.

What did _pfikingr _even want with live dragons, anyway? Perhaps they wanted them as companions, like the _Uh strrrTT _did, but they had only done that because the She had seen his Hiccup and him fly together first. Besides, these ones had the _preynoprey_ creatures that hunted and fought dragons that he had seen come and go with the _pfikingr _many times sinc being caged, which still seemed _strange wrong crazy strange wrong_, so what did they need dragons for too?

The strange kind-of-dragon-talking _pfikingr _came to see him twice per day, which Toothless could still track by the light or dark wafting in from the mouth of the cave, visible through the one open window of sight in the cage where the door was. Mostly the kind-of-dragon-talking _pfikingr _just brought water when he grew thirsty, touched his head, and tried to talk dragon to him. Or at least…what he thought was maybe dragon.

He'd chatter things that sounded somewhat like _safe friendly safe hello friendly peace friendly_, but it was hard to be sure. Even if that was right – and what was there to say it was since _pfikingr _could hardly speak anyway? All except his Hiccup-self that he didn't consider a _pfikingr_ even if he looked kind of like one – Toothless was adamant not to trust it. Dragons could lie so it only stood to reason that _pfikingr_ would lie and trick too and Toothless had no reason to believe it wasn't a lie or a trick after they had hurt him with sharp shooting things and separated he and his Hiccup-self and tied them up in cages where they were trapped apart.

He's hissed back _bad distrust pfikingr hurt separate you me we us bad away stay away distrust no separate bad no back no trust enemy bad not safe_, but the _pfikingr_ didn't seem to understand very well, if at all, and Toothless had quickly found himself frustrated because the _pfikingr _could kind-of _speak _but he couldn't _listen_ and what was the use of one without the other?

At the very least, his wing was already fine after the _pfikingr _had removed the sharp shooting thing and it had brought him water but he was _so hungry_. The _pfikingr_ did not bring him food, though Toothless could smell food-scent on him and sometimes somewhere else in the cave, and he had not eating since before they had first flown to this _pfikingr _nest. It had been a long time since he had not eaten at all like this. He suspected that his Hiccup half probably didn't get food either, but his smaller half didn't need to eat like most dragons did. He could go longer with less or sometimes even none at all, even if the hunger-pains plagued him, but dragons needed lots of food to survive for long.

Toothless perked as he heard noises like one of the other cages being opened, on the far side of the row. Curious and wary, he stretched before getting up and moving as far as he could, craning his head forward to see. Several of the _pfikingr _were milling about the entrance of one of the cages, which stood open, some of them holding more of the binding things.

The dragon tilted his head to listen, catching hints of them garbling to each other, but mostly it was the kind-of-dragon-speaking _pfikingr_, though his voice was odd and not at all like the dragon sounds from before. It was a strange sort of hollow murmur that lacked any sort of variation, so Toothless could not distinguish what kind of things he might be trying to communicate and whether what he was saying was good or bad or happy or angry or sad or anything at all.

The kind-of-dragon-speaking _pfikingr_ made a few motions though and the others went to where he pointed, walking to the other cages, peeling back some of the soft coverings on the sides to about halfway, so that the dragons inside could see each other.

Toothless growled subtly at the _pfikingr _as they came to his cage, who noticeably hesitated, but did the same. He snorted at them as they started to retreat, and one jumped into the air, before scuttling away faster, casting a scared look over its shoulder. Toothless narrowed his eyes and laughed a dragon laugh at the back of his throat at the scared creatures.

_Toothless!_

The dragon perked at the sound and looked for his smaller partner, spying his head of brown fur hopping up to see over the wings of other dragons in the two cages between them. Toothless almost squealed a not-so-dragon sound of delight and stood on his hind legs up against the bars, splaying his wings in elated greeting and pawing towards his other half through one of the gaps longingly.

Best yet was that he could see that _his _Hiccup looked unhurt by the nasty trapping _pfikingr _and energetic, jumping up and pacing to try and see him around bars and other dragons that were now shifting about curiously and interestedly checking out the odd little dragon, starting to block them from seeing each other with their bulk. Toothless hissed at them to move so he could get a better look at his other self and be sure he _really was_ completely okay, and Hiccup's eyes were scouring him as well.

_Hurt wing hurt Toothless love okay love hurt wing? _Hiccup chattered worriedly.

_Fine fine not hurt no okay fine hungry fine not hurt wing good_ Toothless answered, batting his wings against the bars and showing off they were fine and still strong though the jaw-trap thing still made him somewhat off-sounding.

_Good yes relief good delighted worried scared Toothless-love relief happy good love worried miss you love love happy yes need you love relief, _Hiccup sang fondly and was soon joined in answer by Toothless crooning back _yes missed you worried scared relief happy good love need you affection love yes longing here here miss you love love you me we us you me we us!_

Their sort-of reunion was interrupted by a loud, quick banging that had both of them faltering, attention shifting to the kind-of-dragon-speaking _pfikingr _as he bashed a metal thing on another, the sound echoing around the cave in a way that made Toothless' ears sting.

He seemed satisfied to have silenced them though and turned his attention back to the open cage, where Hiccup and Toothless followed his gaze to it.

Several of the _pfikingr_ held onto binding things as a fire-skin cousin slowly wandered forward, looking wary and chattering soft noises of nervousness and uncertainty as it stopped just within the cage as though unsure then placed a clawed wing forward and slung out into the open. Several shiny binding things hung off places it wrapped around and _pfikingr _held onto the far ends an all sides from a distance.

Toothless was watching them carefully, going as far as the chain would allow and sitting to observe. The fire-skin cousin stretched out its wings a bit further and tried to splay them, but the _pfikingr _kept it from doing so with the metal binding things, so it crept forward along its belly instead, growling at them in distrust.

The kind-of-dragon-talking _pfikingr_ came to stand in front of it toting a _pfikingr_ thing with fish in it that immediately caught Toothless' hungry attention, the dragon stopping and shifting in an uneasy way, chattering _confliction danger human bad human fish smell fish hungry bad good food fish human fish good bad wary alert bad good distrust hungry fish bad good wary danger friend food danger human bad good?_

The fire-skin cousin turned his head to follow a fish the kind-of-dragon-speaking _pfikingr _held up and waved around with a tongue swiping over sharp fangs and Toothless found himself licking the inside of his own teeth, shifting eagerly where he was sitting and belly pinching in want.

The human tossed it forward and the fire-skin cousin immediately snapped it up, scarfing it down whole. Already the _pfikingr_ had another fish in his paws, taking a few steps back. The fire-skin cousin eyed him warily, but followed at the same distance, following the fish.

He tossed another to the dragon and it snapped it up like before, continuing to follow, though not without glancing around at the other _pfikingr _that kept taking a few steps around it in a circle, holding the binding things, chattering again nervously.

Toothless perked as he heard the sounds again that the kind-of-dragon-speaking _pfikingr_ had made at him, warbling a sound like _safe reassurance peace friendly reassurance safe friendly follow friendly safe peace_ which made the dragon noticeably confused, hesitating. The _pfikingr _tossed another fish to it and continued to make those kind-of-dragon noises and led it forward, one fish at a time.

Immediately falling back into that equally odd, hollow _pfikingr _garbling, he motioned something to the others of his kind and they pulled the binding things out, the fire-skin cousin screeching _alarm confused danger bad trick bad human no friend confused!_

Toothless snarl-growled distrust and hatred at the _pfikingr_ as the fire-skin cousin writhed and shrieked, spitting fire as its body lit up so that a few _pfikingr_ had to scatter back, though they didn't let the fire-skin cousin free.

He and his dragon-boy were waiting to see the tell-tale glint of a _pfikingr_ sharp thing coming to kill the cousin, but it never did, the smaller _pfikingr _approaching carefully from the side and continuing to warble trick noises of peace and friendliness that Toothless hardly believed at all but after a time the cousin tired and gave up struggling, making a mournful noise of _fear scared danger bad tricked me bad human!_

If the _pfikingr _understood at all – and Toothless knew he _didn't_ – he only continued to make the same sounds back as if he didn't know how to speak anything else. He offered more fish, but the estranged dragon cousin didn't take it this time, instead snarling _no bad distrust danger bad human tricked me bad scared fear distrust bad!_

After a while, the _pfikingr _gave up, tossing the last fish in front of the dragon, but the cousin still didn't go for it, watching the _pfikingr _walk around and pick something up from the long wood _pfikingr_ thing where they often ate. Toothless was still expecting a sharp thing to kill it, but instead the _pfikingr_ picked up what he recognized as paper and a thing to draw with, casting a sidelong glance as his dragon-boy partner and watching him perk interestedly as he also saw it while other dragons also watched with curious uncertainty as to what was happening.

The kind-of-dragon-speaker glanced in his and his Hiccup-self's direction as though making sure they were seeing what was happening before he took a seat on the wood food-eating thing with the paper and said something to one of the other, bigger _pfikingr _that nodded and took a loose rope with knots in it and started to walk around the beast with another smaller, more nervous _pfikingr_ that had reddish fur in-tow.

The held the rope out between them just above part of the dragon and spoke their gibberish to each other, then the kind-of-dragon-speaker started to do something with the paper which Toothless could only guess was to draw like Hiccup did whenever he could get his hands on paper.

The strange kind-of-dragon-speaker kept glancing at the fire-skin cousin that was stretched out by the binding things as the other two moved about it with the rope stretched between them and returned to drawing every time they said something in their strange tongue, looking like he was concentrating hard on what he was doing.

Toothless could make no sense of it as the _pfikingr _continued to walk around and the kind-of-dragon-speaker continued to draw on the paper and eventually the rope was tossed aside as the two _pfikingr_ kept walking around, pointing with their paws and making noise and the dragon chattered its nervousness and confusion and confliction at them without answer and a black croaking bird of a kind that was annoying and tricky but not stupid and easy to eat like seagulls were landed on the kind-of-dragon-speakers shoulder peering curiously at what he was doing.

After some span of time had passed, the kind-of-dragon-speaker stopped and held up the piece of paper and stared at it and the fire-skin cousin for a long moment, glancing between them before setting it aside and standing. He made more hollow noises as the other _pfikingr_ who moved somewhat closer, no longer pulling it stretched out.

The kind-of-dragon-speaker moved around the dragon again, the black bird flying off to some far corner, and he moved close to the beast, pulling off some of the binding things that made a weird rattling sound as they came off and then stepped back.

At first the fire-skin cousin didn't move, frozen and huddled in on itself looking more confused and at a loss of what to do than ever as the _pfikingr_ backed away to gain some distance. It blinked slowly and looked around at the _pfikingr_ and then the other dragons like it was asking what to do, then started to ease up a little and stand back to regular height, chattering _confused wary uncertain free? Free? No hurt tricked? Bad? Good? No hurt no bad good? Confused uncertain free?_

It momentarily tested what would happen by starting to crawl forward, watching the _pfikingr_ uneasily, then quickly snatched up the last fish that it hadn't touched and launched into the air, flying out of the cave unchallenged.

That was the point that Toothless was also completely at a loss.

Had the _pfikingr _just… let the other dragon go free? He tilted his head toward Hiccup's cage and could sense similar confusion from his dragon-boy. Soon the other dragons were quietly murmuring similar things to each other in a hushed, interested, baffled sort of way.

If the _pfikingr_ were catching dragons and then just letting them go again unharmed, then just exactly what were they hoping to gain…?


	7. Chapter 7

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

"_Tch… _the nerve of that guy…" Embrik muttered unhappily, casting a glare over his shoulder at Alekt, who was still scouring over those damn doodles of his. " 'can't believe we're actually doing this. I think I'm lucky I didn't get toasted or have a limb eaten!"

Okay, so the Nightmare had had chains around its neck so it couldn't swivel its head to bite at him, but even so, that wasn't the least bit reassuring. The species of that beast had a reputation for a reason!

"Let it go, lad," Hartvig admonished patiently as he led the way, toting along fresh water for the horses.

" '_Let it go?' _Don't you even see what he's doing?" Embrik demanded hotly, glaring.

"Aye, I see what he's doing, and he's doing a damn fine job of it if you ask me," Hartvig nodded, a few of the horses perking and coming up for water. The lumbering man pushed away a few that were getting too pushy, laughing lowly as he patted them with a firm hand. "Now just hold on, you'll get your turn!"

Embrik blew a lock of red hair out of his face testily, holding up his own bucket for one of the mares.

"Well he's not doing so well from where I'm standing," Embrik argued, clenching his jaw. " 'making us do all his dirty work while he sits there and does pretty pictures, always looking like he doesn't care, not having the sense to be afraid of those monsters. It's not right."

"He knows what he's doing and he's lettin' us handle it because he trusts that we'll do the job properly."

"Yeah, the job of getting _eaten_," Embrik snapped. "He likes to act all tough and stone-faced around the creatures when they're all tied up and can't rip him apart, but it's the rest of us that have to deal with them in the mean-time! And have you seen the way he goes about his business with that Night Fury? Talkin' to it like he's all chummy with them the same way he's always chatting up that damn pet bird on his shoulder, but he won't even _try _to talk to his own kind like that, always just with that distant, apathetic voice like we're too beneath him to even spare the effort! The guy's got feathers between his ears and the dead weight of an iceburg in his chest, I tell ya, same as all the other icy freaks of his clan, and our lives are in _his _hands!" He scoffed openly. "I think I'd rather trust myself to the dragons than him. At least I know where they stand."

"A smart man is wary of dangerous things he doesn't understand," Hartvig nodded. "A wiser man though knows where the fear ends and a healthy respect and understanding for his enemies begins. Just because Alekt looks impassive doesn't mean he isn't without fear, lad, he just doesn't let it rule him."

Embrik gave the man a disbelieving look.

"How can you even say something like that about a guy content to sit on the sidelines watching us struggle to hold down a dragon by ourselves while he just watches us and draws like there's no danger to be had whatsoever? And then just lets the damn beast go without any precaution to any of our safety afterwards?"

"Because he ain't thinking with his feelings and his fear," Hartvig replied simply, giving Embrik a meaningful look. "He's thinking with his head, and that ain't something a lot of people know how to do, much less at his age. Maybe that's just the way his people do things, maybe that's just him, but whatever it is, I have faith in a man that's got a clear head on his shoulders even when he's dealing with what rightfully terrifies most into stupidly cowering like rabbits."

"So you're saying I should just do what I'm told and be like him?" Embrik demanded huffily.

"I'm saying you should give him more of a chance," Hartvig corrected. "So far no one's been mortally wounded or killed, have they?" When Embrik looked unconvinced, he continued. "What do you think that dragon wanted most of all out of that situation? To go on a rampage, killing us all, lighting us on fire and happily watching us burn?" Embrik opened his mouth to reply, but Hartvig interrupted him. "-or do you think it would rather skip all that and the possibility of getting hurt or killed itself and run away to return to its regular life doing regular dragon things free of cages and chains and the fear of axes and swords bringing an end to its life?"

Embrik looked torn between the two answers, mulling over both of them.

"To… run away and live?" he guessed finally. Hartvig nodded his approval.

"Vikings, dragons… doesn't matter, everyone just wants to live. Now, dragons don't fear much, but everything fears death. Most of us live our whole lives fearing it. If I were a dragon, which-" he paused to laugh. "-obviously, despite my size, I'm not, I think I'd choose life if I had the option too."

Embrik frowned, the horses having finished the buckets of water by this point.

"That's not very Viking-like, to be talking like that." There was no glory in running away, despite how many times Embrik had felt like he wanted to recently, and no place in the halls of Valhalla for such cowards.

Hartvig only laughed again heartily.

"I am getting too old to care for what might be seen as making me more or less of a Viking. All I know is that I have seen many battles and many retreats, but in retreating, I lived and had to time to regroup and claim victory in the end. If I had not been meant to live, then the Gods would have taken me already, retreat or no. That's just how it works, lad. We don't choose when we die, only _how _we do it when our time comes."

Embrik hummed thoughtfully as he followed to get more water, gnawing the inside of his cheek in contemplation.

"So… do you think dragons believe the same thing?" He thought aloud. "That if they run away, they can always just return to take victory later?" He saw the look that Hartvig gave him and flushed, only now realizing what he was saying. "I-I mean… never mind, that's stupid, right? Since when do dumb beasts like dragons even think of stuff like that?"

Hartvig looked ahead and uncomfortable silence lapsed between them.

"I couldn't say for sure. Dragons are mysterious creatures. It could very well be that they're just waitin' for a chance to regroup and come after us." That thought made Embrik prickle nervously. "But only time will tell if that's the case. Anyway, I'm sure that Alekt has thought of the possibility already. I think he's already prepared for it."

Embrik nodded uncertainly, but he wasn't so much worried about Alekt being 'prepared' for it as he was everyone else.

"Anyway, after we get water for the horses," Hartvig began again. "Maybe a good hunt will help you clear your head for a bit. 'get some fresh air away from all these fire-breathing behemoths.

Embrik nodded his head, that sounding like a better idea than anything he'd heard all week.

* * *

When Hartvig had suggested he go out riding on a hunt, this wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

He couldn't help but scowl at Alekt's backside as the other young man rode in front of him on Sangrida, trotting through the ravine single-file. Of all the people to be stuck with right now, when he was already in a bad mood, why did it have to be _him_? Either the Gods themselves or Hartvig had a sick sense of humor.

He sighed to himself. It couldn't be helped. Come to think of it, Alekt had hardly left the cave at all since they arrived, other than to go out chasing down and trapping dragons. The guy had to be feeling pretty locked in by now too. Well… if he felt anything at all, which the redhead often doubted.

Embrik's eyes wandered upward as the man's pet crow cawed at them from a tree branch once they reached the forest, then took to the air, flying away somewhere. Alekt was watching it intently as well, following the general direction it had taken. The forest was mostly still, though some birds chattered and flitted about the trees, and a hare darted across their path, but it was thin and not worth the effort of catching, so they let it scamper away into the undergrowth unharmed.

Embrik was hardly worried about birds or rabbits though, warily watching the sky above, listening for tell-tale screeches and roars of dragons, or the wing-beats of looming death swooping down on them. However, the air was still. Unnervingly so.

A thick fog clung to the trees below, thoroughly shrouding them. He was used to cold fog, though, such a common thing back home in Norge, using his other senses and paying attention to the horses' behavior as he tried to ignore the awkwardness that accompanied their silence.

Just what the Hell was he supposed to say anyway, especially at a guy he was pissed at that he was supposed to be getting along with? He licked his lips self-consciously. Maybe he didn't need to say anything. Alekt was probably focused on the hunt anyway, and he doubted the man would even notice if Embrik stayed silent. Hell, he probably would hardly notice if Embrik just up and left entirely. He hardly even spent time with his own men when he wasn't going around dealing with the dragons, and only really because he was too small a guy to do it entirely on his own, the coward.

He heard a distant cawing, three of them, and them a pause. He was almost startled when Alekt made a similar noise back, sounding exactly like a crow himself, the same way that crazy dragon-man sounded more beast than human. He couldn't help but wonder what they might have been saying, if anything.

He remembered Alekt saying something about animals talking in broad implications, rather than specifics, like humans did. Maybe the idiot couldn't actually speak or understand crow or any animals though, same way he'd faked his way through speaking dragon. Would he really be able to do that?

Then again, he'd fooled both the dragon and Embrik into thinking he could speak and understand it. What was to say that he couldn't trick a dumb bird into the same thing? Hell, maybe he was _still _tricking Embrik and the young man hadn't realized it.

_Maybe he's tricking us ALL and we don't realize it_, he thought bitterly as the crow cawed again, and Alekt cawed back. Between the dragon-man and Alekt, he wasn't sure which was more insane.

There was a more rapid series of caws this time, but Alekt didn't reply, instead pulling his horse to a halt.

"Something's ahead," he tossed back as he loaded his crossbow, startling Embrik with his words more than the crow calls had. The redhead quickly nodded and swung out of his saddle as he retrieved his own bow, following the other man through the brush, creeping quietly.

Before long, Alekt stopped and brushed aside a fir branch, peering over a small cleft. Embrik peered over his shoulder and spotted the same point of interest, a sizeable deer that picked its way through coarse grass, nibbling and angling its ears nervously, sensing it was being watched.

Alekt slowly positioned himself on the rock and aimed, while Embrik knocked an arrow.

"Hit the back thigh," Alekt whispered levelly, once against surprising Embrik, though he nodded and aimed. At about the same moment, they fired. Embrik's arrow found its right thigh, and Alekt's bolt found its right shoulder.

The deer gave a squeal and staggered, trying to sprint away, but instead it fell on its side as both legs on the right gave out under it, flailing. Embrik had never seen a deer go down like that so fast in his life, recounting endless chases of his prey through the woods, even ones that got away because they were too quick even despite being injured.

Alekt stood and leapt down out of the brush, quickly crossing the distance to the animal and ending it with a blade through its eye and into the skull. Embrik couldn't help but shudder at just how swift and merciless a kill it was, imagining that he could probably be just as efficient in a fight against an human if he wanted to with that kind of deadly, surgical precision. Maybe he wouldn't even need help against a dragon, if it came down to it, and that was a truly terrifying thought.

_That guy's just as scary as any Night Fury, _he couldn't help but think, not having even moved from his hiding spot yet. Heck, the guy even dressed in mostly black like the beast.

"Let's get a move on," Alekt barked in monotone as he slung the deer over either shoulder, holding it be the legs, and trudged back towards the horses. Embrik remained silent as he followed, still reeling. "We still have other prey to find."

Embrik mounted after they'd secured the deer onto Sangrida's back and they continued on, following crow sounds again.

"So… what does it mean?" he asked after a while of tense silence… or at least it was tense to him. He was still having flashes of seeing the other take down that deer the way he had, and his mind was dredging up other images of all the ways he could think Alekt could probably do the same to him, or anyone else, if he decided he wanted to. He'd be lying if he said that Alekt didn't scare him, but he also recalled what Hartvig had told him earlier and was trying to push those feelings aside. He was failing hard, but he was trying. "Those crow calls, I mean?"

Alekt glanced back at him with those emotionless eyes, and he shuddered, glad when they turned ahead and off of him again.

"Those sounds are companion calls," he said just after the bird croaked at them again, with those short, timed croaks, then paused. "If you put it to human words, it would be as if he were saying, 'This is where I am, I'm over here, but nothing worth attention is happening'. Nothing more than a greeting to other crows, really."

Embrik nodded in understanding, never having thought much of it.

"When the crows caw in faster, irregular beats, it means something interesting is happening. The more cawing you hear, the more interesting. Sometimes its danger, sometimes it's a source of food they've found. Anything worth giving attention, really. Finding out exactly what it is though requires going and finding out for oneself."

Embrik nodded at the same time that he heard more excited cawing like just before they'd found the deer, Alekt flicking the reigns of his horse into a trot.

"Um… so how do you know that he's leading us to animals we can hunt?" he couldn't help but wonder aloud.

"Because we understand each other," Alekt replied simply. "Without being able to speak specifics, he already knows. It's a simple matter of mutual gain. He finds the animals I need to hunt, and he gets to eat what I kill. That's all either of us needs to know."

Those words gave Embrik the most amount of pause. How did one even accomplish that? It wasn't as though humans didn't have animals as companions, but mostly it was nothing like Alekt described.

How did the crow know what Alekt wanted without him telling it directly? Dogs and horses needed commands, and followed them unquestioningly most of the time. Even people needed to be told what to do, and they were the smartest creatures around, almost the top of the food chain! Even dragons had to fear humans killing and trapping them!

It made no sense, yet it seemed like it did to Alekt. Maybe it was something only those on a whole 'nother level of insane, like Alekt or that dragon-man, could ever hope to grasp, and he was just wasting his time in even trying.

* * *

Another catch – a boar – and some fish gathered from nets later on, and Embrik couldn't be happier to be back. The young Viking had been impressed and a little scared by Alekt's efficiency in taking down the deer, and equally so when they'd hunted and killed a boar, though it had still been a lot more trouble than their first kill.

Boar hunting was always such a pain, but at least they would eat well.

After they'd returned though, it was the same annoying thing all over again. Alekt went traipsing off to go coddle and talk to his damn dragons and wild dragon-man, then return to his drawings, while he left everyone else to take on the _real _work.

Absolutely everything about the guy was getting on his last nerve in one way or another.

He cast a glare toward the brunette even as he himself sat by the fire, waiting for the meat and fish to finish cooking on the spit. Even now, the other man was sitting somewhere off to the side, mulling over his papers, occasionally drawing, but mostly just staring over them like he was in deep thought.

He huffed and turned his glare to the fire, the smell of cooking meat making his stomach audibly rumble. At least it looked like some of the fish was finally done, taking one of them for himself.

"Maybe you should go and take Alekt some food, before he forgets to eat entirely," Hartvig told him from off to his side, earning a stricken look from Embrik.

"What? Why _me_?" he demanded.

"Because you've been glaring and huffing at him all day."

Embrik scowled petulantly, but he wasn't in a mood to argue, standing up testily and dishing up some of the fish and brewing potatoes for the object of his annoyance, before finally approaching, still wearing the same expression.

"Hey, the other guys wanted me to bring you your share," he said, barely resisting spitting the words. Alekt hummed, but barely acknowledged him, continuing to stare at his papers and make the occasional mark. That was serving to tick him off even more.

"Go ahead and set down next to me. I'll get to it in a minute."

Without a word, Embrik did, then stepped back, hovering for a moment. He was fully intent on turning back for the fire, maybe take his mind off with listening to some old war stories, but curiosity got the better of him, and he couldn't help but lean over to look at what Alekt was doing. He'd never really given the guy's drawings a good look before now. What kind of Viking just sat around drawing things, anyway? He should have been out there helping do the heavy lifting with the rest of them.

The scene of the deer kill flashed through his mind again, and he resisted shivering again. Maybe he wasn't doing it because he just didn't need the practice.

The sketches that he saw were somewhat confusing to him. He knew what Alekt was intending on crafting, but most of it still made little sense to him. Making wings for Vikings was such an asinine idea. If it would actually _work_, then wouldn't someone else have done it by now? Or, heck, if humans were _meant_ to fly, wouldn't they have simply been born with wings? They were humans, not birds or dragons. They belonged on the ground!

Alekt glanced up at him for the first time, and Embrik couldn't help but hope with a certain smugness that he was making the man self-conscious all of a sudden. It would serve the guy right with everything he'd put them all through lately!

"Is there something you wanted?"

"Oh no, nothing really," Embrik shook his head, feeling more confident than he remembered ever being before. If he was making Alekt uncomfortable, then he was going to milk it for all its worth. "Just looking at what you're doing."

Alekt hummed and turned his eyes back to his work, and Embrik had to resist grinning. Maybe he was just imagining it, maybe it was the stress getting to him in a bad way, but he could almost _swear_ that Alekt seemed almost squeamish under his watch. The longer he lingered though, the more silence dragged on, and the more indifferent Alekt seemed. Embrik quickly found it backfiring as he became self-conscious himself.

Seriously, did _nothing_ get to this guy? _Ever_?

"So… uh…" he began, merely trying to distract himself from his own discomfort. The indifferent silence was starting to become stifling. "Is… this-" he directed to the drawings with a flick of his wrist. "-something your clan normally does, too?"

_Y'know, besides killing… trapping dragons alive only to buddy up to them… being colder than the most frigid mountain winds._

"Yes and no," Alekt answered both simply and cryptically. Embrik bit his lip in frustration, but tried to shove his temper back into hiding, recalling Hartvig's earlier words. Alekt thought with his head, not his feelings, and the redhead was acutely aware he swung way too far in the other direction.

_Cool head… don't feel, think. That's how this guy operates. Maybe I'll actually learn something if I try to steep to his level._

"O-okay, how so?"

Alekt glanced at him, and he thought he saw a flash of confusion. Maybe it was just his head playing tricks on him though. Maybe he wanted so desperately to see _something _there he could actually read that he was projecting emotions the guy probably didn't even have in him to use.

"My drawings are a little more technical than most of what my clan does. Less symbolic."

Embrik nodded, having seen the art done by his clan in stonework and paint. Crows were a common theme. Always with those stupid birds of theirs.

"And these… wing ideas of yours… you came up with them? Or is that a general goal for your whole clan, and I just haven't heard about it?"

"Just me. The wings were my idea. Hardly anyone else believes it will work, but that's why this is an experiment."

"So even amongst your own, you're the crazy one, huh?" Embrik humored.

"If that's the way you want to put it, then sure."

Embrik almost laughed aloud, for once the other's almost callous, matter-of-fact bluntness hilarious as he made this response with the straightest face a man could ever make. Maybe he was getting somewhere after all.

"What's it even like, in your clan? I mean… in the land that's actually theirs." For once, Alekt's face looked somewhat thoughtful, which was the most he figured he'd ever actually gotten a glimpse of in the way of Alekt's expressions, which were always lacking. That was good, right?

"Just as cold as anywhere else in Norge," Alekt hummed. "High, surrounded by precarious cliffs, hazardous… the wind and snow howl endlessly off the peaks, like a dragon's roar that never ends for all but the rarest, most peaceful of nights, when the silence becomes haunting."

Embrik could barely imagine such a place existing in this world, but he took up a seat before he consciously realized what he was doing, nodding his head indicatively.

"Tell me more."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **For the record, this was a really hard chapter to write and took me FOREVER to put to words, but I'm pretty sure it's also the longest one so far. Dragon perspective's ain't easy to pull off, man! XD But the muses demanded I write this chapter and I do think the story needed it ^_^ Hopefully you guys will agree~

* * *

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

Toothless moaned a long, low sound and rolled over with pinched-closed eyes, trying in vain to be rid of the ache. Four days without even the smallest scrap of food was beginning to become intolerable and the dragon couldn't remember ever feeling so weak because of it. Even a tiny, meatless mouse would have been better than nothing at this point.

The worst part wasn't the hunger itself or the weak feeling though, it was the plaintive, worried fear he could start to hear ebbing into Hiccup's calls to him that was the worst despite Toothless' efforts to assure his other half that he was _fine yes not hurt tired fine no worry safe only tired hungry fine_ but Hiccup knew he was lying and Toothless knew he was lying and his belly knew he was lying even more and punished his lying with pinching and angry demanding growling that only filling it could make stop and Toothless _would_ if he could but he couldn't with the cage trapping him and the jaw-shut thing and the binding thing that kept him tethered inside and because the _pfikingr _did not bring him fish to eat like they did some of the other dragons.

One of the only reliefs he managed to get from the hungry-pinching-growling was when he managed to doze off but even then the hunger pains were starting to interrupt even that and making every moment beyond uncomfortable. The water that the _pfikingr_ brought him daily helped a little bit for a short while but it didn't last long enough to make a difference.

The smell of fish and the sound of other cages being opened reached his nose and ears and it was enough to make his tongue water in overwhelming need for something to fill his belly but the Fury wasn't fool enough to hope he was going to get anything at this point, rolling back onto his belly and nestling his head between his paws and trying to find sleep if only to forget about being hungry for a while or to chase fish and prey-things in his dream and pretend he could get rid of the hungry-pinching-growling that way.

He was already there before long, hungrily hunting and chasing prey-things behind his eyelids and about to catch them when something flopped against his face outside his dreaming and the dragon sat bolt upright, forests and seas disappearing back into dark caves and weaving metal branches where the not-really-dragon-talking _pfikingr_ watched him from beyond.

Toothless' surprise-wide eyes wandered down to where a dead fish lay at his paws and his nose flared, blinking for a moment as though thinking he might still be dreaming. The hunger overwhelmed his senses though and he tried to grab it, only to remember the jaw-shut thing and shaking his head furiously, snorting angrily and narrowing his eyes at the _pfikingr_ as they slowly circled around the side of the cage, pushing the soft covering thing aside somewhat.

Toothless saw the _pfikingr_ wave another fish in hand at him in a taunting sort of way and Toothless narrowed his eyes more, refusing to move closer, but the _pfikingr_ didn't seem to catch the hint. They made a motion around their face and for a moment Toothless could only tilt his head in question, trying to figure out what the _pfikingr_ was doing and irately pawed at the jaw-trap thing seconds before it dawned on him, angling his eyes to try and look at the device without success.

Sniffing uncertainly, the dragon cautiously crawled closer, eyeing the _pfikingr_ with every bit of distrust he could muster, until he was within reach. He watched the human's every move as they dropped the second fish and used their skilled human paws to undo the jaw-shut trap and pull it fully away, rather than only loosen it, and Toothless couldn't be more happy or confused as he immediately backed away and shook his head a few times in relief to have it gone.

He immediately scarfed down the fish further away from the cage walls and eyed the _pfikingr_ appraisingly out of the corner of his eyes. The food dropping into his stomach was like a hard, painful rock at first but quickly gave way to a good food-filled feeling that almost made the dragon moan in content pleasure after having felt so empty for so long and immediately fixed his gaze on the second fish, creeping forward to snatch it up before retreating again and scarfing that one down as well, licking his lips in satisfaction.

The _pfikingr_ made a sound at him and drew the Fury's attention to another fish held by his paws but Toothless was in no way eager to get anywhere near him again, waiting for them to toss it to him from a distance again, but they did no such thing, indicating for him to come near again. Toothless snorted refusal and stayed where he was at a safe distance, waiting for the _pfikingr_ to lose patience and leave hopefully with dropping the fish where they were when he did but neither were willing to budge.

After a decent stretch of time, with neither Toothless having any intention of moving closer and the _pfikingr _showing not even the slightest inclination to leave anytime soon, the dragon stretched out pressed against the bars on the opposite side and made himself comfortable, still watching the _pfikingr_ carefully and ready to wait up all night until they gave up if he had to. Two fish had hardly been enough to fill him up at all but now that he had eaten _something_ he could wait and bide his time as long as he needed.

After considerably longer had passed, the _pfikingr_ stood and Toothless watched him closely as he went to the front of the cage, then circled around to the same side, both with eyes locked on each other, but Toothless didn't move immediately, waiting to see what he was going to do. When the _pfikingr_ stretched a hand out to touch him, he noticeably growled and pushed himself up, moving to the other side of the cage and laying down the same way, pressed against the far side.

The not-really-dragon-speaker leaned against the bars and watched him, but didn't move to pursue again, tossing him one of the fish. Toothless snatched it up and ate it, but didn't take his eyes off the man even to blink. After some time had passed once more, the _pfikingr _tried again, and Toothless moved once more as well, until they were once again at opposite ends, and repeated the same stand-off again a short while later, Toothless throating a smug sort of dragon sound at the tricky but not tricky enough _pfikingr_.

He could see the calculation in those sky-colored eyes and was admittedly interested though still wary of what the _pfikingr_ was going to do next and was trying to figure them out at the same time he could tell the human was trying to figure him out as well.

After some time deliberating, the _pfikingr _moved to the front of the cage and called out in his human gibberish until a couple of others of his own kind had gathered, talking to each other in their strange tongue. Those few moved away and returned with more thick, metal branches and circled around the cage, pulling the soft covering off entirely to settle on the ground behind the cage.

Toothless stood and eyed the group warily, tail slowly waving behind him nervously as he eyes the _pfikingr_ move around the outside of his cage. One circled around the back and grabbed the end of the binding thing that led to his neck and heaved, pulling the Fury around and shortening his reach to move about. The black dragon snarled angrily at them and resisted, so that others had to join in pulling him.

A scraping noise sounded behind him and he looked to see a few of the new metal branches being woven between those of his cage to make it smaller and he shrieked warning at them and heard his dragon-boy bark out a worried-questioning noise to him _Toothless worried angry Toothless hurt? Toothless hurt angry what wrong?_

The dragon was already busy gathering fire in his throat to answer and blasted one through a gap in the cage, sending the _pfikingr _scattering with cries of fear and dismay as it barely missed and hit the rock wall behind them, screeching hatred at all of them with fully-bared teeth as he tried to turn and fire at them again, barely having the room to do that.

He snarled especially spitefully as green eyes landed on the not-really-dragon-speaking _pfikingr_ watching him and the fact that he didn't seem afraid at all as he should have been and instead only calculatedly blank only made the dragon angrier for some reason, gathering up more fire in the back of his throat to blast the tricky dangerous _pfikingr_ into oblivion.

He missed again as his enemy nimbly leapt away to the side and circled around, Toothless snarling rage and trying to turn after him, coming face-to-face with them and growling low and furious, though he couldn't angle himself right to fire another blast in the narrow maneuvering room that he had and was still struggling to fix that.

His shrieks died into a low, deadly growl that visibly rumbled through his entire chest, but the _pfikingr_ didn't seem to have enough sense to be healthily afraid of him and started up with that lying kind-of-dragon noises again, offering up _peace friendly peace calm peace calm_.

Toothless only continued to rumble a low, reverberating growl and glared distrust, the only thing at this point keeping the dumb human alive being the metal trappings of the cage. Otherwise he would have ripped the male apart much, much earlier and done so with a great amount of ease and no remorse at all.

What was even more ridiculously foolish was that the _pfikingr_ didn't seem wise enough to realize this fact and slowly reached a hand out towards his head, making those same cooing noises that were only lies to the dragon's ears and he snarled open rebellion at them, snapping the _pfikingr's_ arm with his teeth fully exposed and yanking him against the bars.

He was twistedly satisfied to hear the metal branches clang and watch the wince of pain twist its way across the stupid creature's face as the edges of the cage dug into his side, bracing one human paw against them but not trying to pull away, either because of fear or because he had figured out already that Toothless wasn't going to simply let him go and pulling away would be a bad idea that would only wound him since the dragon's teeth had hooked him but not broken flesh yet.

The other _pfikingr_s shouted and snarled at him, producing weapons and circling around to attack him with their sharp things. Toothless made a noise at the tricky one he'd trapped and their eyes met, staring at each other straight in the eye for a long moment.

So far the _pfikingr _had not harmed any of the dragons and had even let some of them go though to what end the Fury still couldn't figure out but if he _really _intended not to be an enemy to dragons and was trying to talk to and understand them at all then he would realize Toothless' true intentions and he wouldn't let the other _pfikingr_ harm him.

Toothless could almost see the wheels in the _pfikingr_'s head turning as they stared at each other and tried to size the other up before they finally barked at the other _pfikingr_ in his human tongue and then snarled loudly when they didn't cease their charge so that they faltered and looked deeply conflicted about what to do, not retreating but likewise no longer advancing as they tried to figure out what was going on.

Toothless purred a brief moment of satisfaction but quickly stopped and yanked the man hard against the bars again when the tricky _pfikingr_ tried to pull away, growling subtly at him _you stay mine now stay listen free no listen stay mine you crazy tricky stay mine now until listen_.

Again came the _peace friendly calm friendly yes_ warbling and Toothless growled louder at him, digging his teeth in a little more until the _pfikingr_ fell silent, staring at him and waiting and hopefully listening which was good and satisfying.

Toothless had tried and frustratedly failed to properly communicate even though the stupid _pfikingr_ seemed to think he could talk to dragons and maybe he could fool dumber dragons but Toothless was proudly more clever than most of his kin and he wouldn't be placated by fake dragon-talking. They were going to communicate on _his _terms now and do it properly even if he had to hold the _pfikingr_ here for days until he finally learned.

Now that he actually had the _pfikingr_ where he needed him to be to force him to actually listen and understand though, he came to another problem. What did _pfikingr_ communicate, anyway? They were not the same as dragons and since this one clearly did not understand nearly as much as he tried to pretend that he did it was going to be hard to get him to know what Toothless actually wanted much less to get a proper response from him that would make sense to either of them.

He supposed that he would have to treat it the way that a dragon would treat a hatchling just out of its egg but even that was different because hatchlings heard dragon voices from the moment the eggs were laid and were easy to teach but they were also not yet clever just like _pfikingr_ so maybe he could make his captive understand just very simple things and see where that got him first.

He tried to think and the simplest thing that came to mind first were the new branches that made his space too small to move properly and it seemed the most straight-forward thing to do and since the _pfikingr_ seemed to think Toothless was too dumb to know the difference between real dragon-speak and fake the Fury would merely have to show the _pfikingr_ how quickly clever and knowing of things he really was. If nothing else, it would be a test to see how clever and able to understand the tricky _pfikingr_ truly was and how much of his cleverness he might have been faking just like his dragon-talking.

_Take free move these make bigger again move take_ he indicated as he pawed at the metal bars, giving his captive an imploring look and willing him to understand because if he couldn't even grasp something that simple then there was probably little hope he would understand anything else. He watched the _pfikingr'_s eyes flick between him and the bars and turned his head towards the other _pfikingr_ who still hadn't moved and were tensely watching as he spoke to them. Toothless watched them move warily around behind him on the other side of the cage, barely within his peripheral sight, and the metal branches moved and soon disappeared, giving him back some proper room to move and stretch out his wings and tail.

He purred approval but didn't let the _pfikingr _free yet, trying to think of how to proceed from there that wouldn't be too complicated for him to grasp and was glad that the _pfikingr _seemed content to wait without rushing things even if it was only because he could probably sense that Toothless wasn't ready to let him go and trying to force himself free would be a futile endeavor.

He supposed the next easiest thing to try and communicate would be the binding thing on his neck though he wasn't sure that the _pfikingr_ would do that but if Toothless didn't give him a choice then he would have to if he expected to ever get his arm back and the Fury fully intended on using that to his advantage.

He planted a paw on the chain and indicated with a glance of his eyes, since that seemed to work fairly well so far, growling softly _this too free off free this off too_.

There was a noticeably moment of thoughtful hesitance, where Toothless wasn't sure if it was unease or lack of understanding that brought about still silence. After a brief lapse of time, the _pfikingr_ looked at a loss, his lips twitching like he wanted to try to say something but having no idea how to do it. At the very least, he seemed to be _truly_ thinking about how to communicate rather than placate which was a small step in the right direction and Toothless rumbled in imploring encouragement though the realization that he was trying to _talk_ to a _pfikingr_ of all the dumb things was never once far from his mind.

Hiccup didn't really count. He was sort-of _pfikingr_ in body but in heart and soul and speech he was all dragon and Toothless' other half and the Fury would never think of him as anything less than a dragon.

They were interrupted as one of the other _pfikingr_ started to speak from a distance at him and his captive talked back but Toothless could make no sense of it. He swelled slightly with hope that the binding thing was about to come off, but it never did, and Toothless guessed that the thing the _pfikingr_ wanted to communicate and couldn't was that he wasn't going to be taking it off, much to the Fury's chagrin.

The dragon perked slightly as the _pfikingr_ finally said something that he truly understood: his name. He blinked invitingly and waited for the _pfikingr_ to continue, but once again he looked lost, concentrating hard on how to proceed.

The human shifted slightly and gave just enough of a tug on his arm that Toothless could feel it and the speech wasn't really there but they made a sound and he could still read the intention of what the _pfikingr_ wanted to say and trying to get permission to have his arm back.

Toothless tugged back and snorted refusal _no stay mine now listen still stay mine no you stay here._

He craned his head slightly as Hiccup confusedly called to him from his own cage a little further off, having been chattering off and on at him for a short while now though Toothless had been focused on his captive.

_Who yours who Toothless-love fine maybe not hurt yes who yours?_

Toothless purred smugly back _tricky dragon liar speaking caught yes I caught proud have mine hunted got human mine proud stay caught free maybe you me we us yes maybe caught proud us free maybe yes._

The dragon's attention turned back to the _pfikingr_ as they repeated his name again and then made a motion with their head, looking elsewhere. Toothless made a noise of question and the _pfikingr_ repeated it, but Toothless still wasn't sure what he wanted. After a few more tries and some slight frustration later, he thought maybe the _pfikingr_ was trying to ask something about his dragon-boy though that seemed a little bit odd because he would probably have an easier time communicating bigger specifics with his other half than he would with Toothless himself. Unless that was what the _pfikingr_ was trying to say was that he would rather try talking to Hiccup but Toothless could not be sure.

Seeming to realize that his attempts to communicate were getting him nowhere, the _pfikingr_ indicated towards Toothless with one hand and said his name again, then made a motion over his shoulder and a noise of question.

After a time though, Toothless lost patience and snorted, shaking his head abruptly and giving the _pfikingr_ a look.

This communication thing was really not working out all that well. Why did he ever hope a _pfikingr_ could understand or speak to him at all? Even if they were trying to understand, it was useless. _Pfikingr_ were too dumb to understand or speak right.

He flexed his jaw slightly but didn't let the _pfikingr_ go just yet, trying to think of it there was anything else he could do while he still had the male caught.

Hiccup would have had much better luck trying to make sense and make the _pfikingr_ hear them but since his dragon-boy and him were apart then that made things more difficult and more frustrating but perhaps he could fix that and even get them free and tucked the _pfikingr_'s arm as he tilted his head towards the door in indication.

The _pfikingr_ took no time at all to figure it out but still didn't show that he would let the Fury go though Toothless had not expected him to easily and tried to think of how he might convince the other and decided his best bet would be to do similar as the _pfikingr_ had done and started to warble those same sort of reassuring sounds back in question _friendly peace no harm yes? Friendly no harm free friendly good will be trust yes?_

The _pfikingr_ stared at him for a long moment in thought and Toothless could sense his wariness but they replied to him _friendly peace yes friendly_ but didn't carry on with it for long as if not sure if that was what Toothless wanted to hear back.

Toothless once again purred with approval and loosened his hold after a moment so that the _pfikingr_ was free to pull away finally and bark something at the other _pfikingr_ who soon hesitantly left to go elsewhere though they were still nervously watching from a distance away. The _pfikingr_ circled around and Toothless rumbled eagerly to see the cage opened but they stopped before reaching the door and instead settled to sit to the side of the cage.

Toothless turned his head rapidly between the cage door and _pfikingr_ a few times expectantly and tried to look as non-threatening and friendly as possible but they only made another noise at him that sounded like refusal and shook their head.

The dragon growled and flattened his ears back testily.

_Bad tricked pfikingr tricked me bad not fair supposed to free you tricky bad you!_

Either out of lack of understanding or lack of caring, the _pfikingr_ simply shrugged at him and took one of the fish from the _pfikingr_ carrying thing and held it out, though without getting close enough that Toothless could grab him through the bars again. The Fury gave him an angry look and grabbed the fish, yanking it back with a tantruming harshness and scarfing it down with a glare at them and considered blasting them with fire but from what he'd seen so far this one _pfikingr_ was the really the only one that cared for keeping the other humans from harming the dragons and dragon-boy so he second-guessed the impulse and instead only fantasized doing it. Over and over and over again until not even bones were left.

The _pfikingr_ offered up another fish but Toothless didn't take it, glaring an _I'm-still-very-mad-at-you_ kind of glare and snorting loudly to accentuate the look.

After a short while longer, the _pfikingr_ tossed the rest of the fish in at the edge of the cage and Toothless contemplated grabbing him through the bars again but didn't and watched as the _pfikingr_ sat down to watch him again.

Before much more time had passed, Toothless perked as he watched a black shape soar past and land on the _pfikingr_'s shoulder and croak obnoxiously a few times. Only then did the human gaze leave him and instead go to the annoying black bird, warbling those sounds that were kind-of-but-not-dragon at it and the bird chattered back at him both noisily and quietly and nibbled at him with its long, sharp mouth and coo noises of affection and then craned its head forward as the _pfikingr_ scratched behind its feathery head with one paw so that the bird crooned contently and snuggled up to the _pfikingr_'s neck.

It was a curious thing watching and listening to the human and crow interact in both bird-speak and some human-speak thrown in seamlessly and vaguely reminded the Fury of his own interactions with his dragon boy even though Hiccup was somewhat human in body only even though Toothless never really thought of him that way and even though Toothless didn't talk to birds or – before today – humans, he could pick out most of what they were probably communicating and that they really did understand each other and weren't just pretending the way that the _pfikingr_ had tried to pretend with him.

For the first time he might've understood what it could have been like for the _pfikingr_ like the She-_pfikingr_ or the red-furred Alpha to watch him and his dragon-boy together without really fully understanding their talk or mannerisms but knowing that they were close and understood each other even if no one else did and the Fury was interestedly content to watch for a while up until the _pfikingr_ caught him staring and he pointedly glared again and turned away trying to act disinterested but failing as he kept watching them out of the corner of one jade eye.

Now the _pfikingr_ was watching him again and turned away to lift his paw to his mouth and make a long, shrill noise that made Toothless' ears sting and the dragon gave him a dirty as well as confused look because he had not heard _pfikingr_ made such a strange noise before.

He quickly forgot that as he heard a heavy _clack-clock-clack_-ing noise and one of the strange _preynoprey_ creatures appeared from further away in the cage and was quickly gaining distance toward them and Toothless became increasingly wary as he stood and watched the _crazy strange hunting preynoprey crazy thing_ come uncomfortably close, stopping just short of the _pfikingr_ and shaking itself alertly.

Toothless eyed the animal and flared his nose and the _preynoprey_ eyed him and flared its even bigger nose back as both creatures sized each other up. The _pfikingr_ stood now, though he was still heavily dwarfed by the _preynoprey_ and scratched its neck with one paw down to a hefty shoulder and the strange beast craned its head around and rubbed it against the _pfikingr_'s back but didn't make much noise other than soft, bellowing breaths as its body rippled in an odd way down its back.

Unlike with the crow, the _pfikingr_ spoke only on his own strange human tongue as he gently pushed the _preynoprey_ back and made small motions with his paws and the _preynoprey_ turned as if to leave but instead only spun all the way around with a little more distance and then posed and held itself that way other than angling its ears and watching Toothless through the cage and Toothless stared back at it with increasing fascination and only a hint more bravery but he could still remember fighting the creature that was at least as large as him and remember it lunging with teeth that weren't sharp but they were big and hard, lashing claws like rocks on the ends of its paws that had left him dizzy and hurting.

The _pfikingr_ reached a hand out to touch the top of its head and it bowed its neck and walked forward slowly as the human talked to it until it had come closer to the bars and flared its nose at Toothless to take in his scent. The dragon wasn't as eager or ready to get close but the _pfikingr_ made a reassuring noise at him – that he now recognized wasn't dragon-speak but bird-speak though they were somewhat similar – and a motion that he recognized the _Uh st-r-r-r-TT _did at Hiccup before that was supposed to mean _come here_ but the Fury was reluctant.

Toothless eyed the creature warily and chattered _wary alert crazy strange preynoprey danger alert caution strange?_ but the _pfikingr_ continued to try and reassure him and still had a hand on the weird thing and was perhaps calming it with stroking touches on its neck and maybe to make it go away if it wasn't friendly but Toothless could not be sure.

With a low growl of uncertainty, Toothless slowly crept forward though he still kept some distance and eyed its sharp rock-claw paws and was ready to retreat at the faintest sign of danger as he craned his head and flared his nose to take in its odd scent that was mixed with human smell and the smallest scent of other dead prey-things like dragons often had on their breath but the smell was on its fur instead of its nose or mouth.

The _preynoprey_ thing didn't lash out and only continued to sniff and snort at him curiously with ears and head angled forward and Toothless found some of his confidence returning and sniffed closer until their noses were almost touching though he was not bold enough to get any closer to such an odd creature that should have been a scared prey-thing but wasn't and even chased and fought dragons and _won_.

After Toothless drank its scent into his nose and it probably had done the same it lifted its head and gazed elsewhere in a relaxed, disregarding sort of fashion and after the _pfikingr_ patted and scratched it with his paws and spoke to it the strange _preynoprey_ creature began to walk away to the far end of the cave again with Toothless still watching it and almost somewhat disappointed to see the odd animal leave before he could figure out more about it since Toothless had never seen these sort of creatures before having come to this cave amongst these particular _pfikingr_.

The bird-speaker crouched down aside his cage now and caught Toothless' eyes, the dragon more simply cautious and curious than wary or distrusting but he still wasn't relaxed or trusting enough to give the _pfikingr_ contact or let them touch him as they held one paw out invitingly for him to get close to and instead snatched up the fish and dragged them to the other side to finish eating.

The _pfikingr_ seemed to either catch the hint or had grown tired of trying to get close so they stood and instead moved away at last to leave the dragon to eat in peace and solitude.


	9. Chapter 9

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

Alekt huffed softly and massaged his arm as he walked away, easily getting the attention of a few men since they had not once stopped watching him and the dragon ever since he shooed them away, staring as though they expected him to magically disappear in a puff of smoke any second now.

"Pull the cloth back over the cage, to where it was before."

The men wordlessly nodded in a stupor, glancing over him appraisingly as they passed, as though trying increasingly hard to find some body part or limb missing. The only thing _Tt-th-ss_ – as the dragon-boy called it and the dragon responded to – had done was leave shallow teeth-marks with the points of his fangs. Likely all traces of the encounter would disappear within days. Nothing to worry over or write home about.

"Y-you-!" Alekt hummed in question and turned his head to Embrik, who was glaring at him through an arsenal of mixed emotions, though mostly anger and disbelief. "What in Helheim were you thinking? Do you have even the slightest damn clue just how stupid and reckless that was?" When Alekt didn't even humor him with a response, only a calm, indifferent stare, Embrik continued. "You know what I'm talking about! Acting all nonchalant like that and letting that freaking dragon keep a hold on you! I can't believe you did that! You should have just let the men take care of that beast with swords and axes!"

"And what would that have accomplished, exactly?" Alekt tilted his head faintly.

Embrik gaped and stuttered at him, unable to come up with something comprehensible for several moments.

"Of all the hair-brained… Are you _completely insane_? I mean… does the concept of danger or common sense actually mean anything to you? Your arm. Was in the mouth. Of a _Night Fury_!"

"And yet, here it still is," Alekt mused, holding up his arm for Embrik to see and wiggling his fingers. That only made Embrik more furious, as if taking the motion as a taunt.

"That's not the point!" Embrik fumed. "Oh, but what do you care? You've not once given a single rat dropping for the danger or risk, have you? Hardly even for yourself, as far as I can tell, and certainly not for anyone else around you!"

Alekt only continued to stare for a moment, Embrik visibly fighting to find some proper way to channel his temper, before the brunette shrugged and turned away, starting to walk.

"It's not the risks that concern me. In the end, it's results that matter."

"Why I outta-"

Alekt heard the movements behind him at the exact second as his crow companion cawed a warning and took flight off of his shoulder, already maneuvering to dodge the oncoming punch before he had fully swiveled around to face the attacking redhead.

He dodged low and easily underneath the swing, sweeping around Embrik's side until he was behind the other. He grabbed a tight fistful of hair at the same moment he knocked the slightly younger man's legs out from under him with one of his own, slamming him flat into the ground, and sat atop his shoulders with the heel of one boot pinning a hand against the ground.

The brunette knew he hadn't managed to knock the other out when he felt Embrik go rigid as one of his blades, a short-handled, black sickle, found his throat warningly, before the fool even had the chance to attempt struggling free.

Alekt could feel the surrendering tension in the other's body under him, as well as the fact that Embrik barely even dared to breathe, completely still with fear. Exactly as he rightly should have been, after the stupid stunt he'd just pulled.

"I can drop a fully grown horse onto its side and remind it who's in charge in thirty seconds flat when it fools itself into thinking it can take dominance by force. Dropping you is much more effortless by comparison," he told him coldly.

Embrik didn't move or speak, but Alekt could feel the faintest shiver that ran up his spine. Despite that Alekt was actually smaller and lighter, Embrik didn't even try to throw him off, seeming to have forgotten this fact quite quickly and easily.

"You can think what you want of me, sneer at me, despise me, question me, insult me, and none of it matters," Alekt stated apathetically, before leaning in close to Embrik's ear, dropping his voice into a promising, deadly hiss. "-but if you _ever_ decide to test your luck and attack me again, especially from behind, you're going to walk away with more wounds than just the ones to your pride, if you walk away at all."

Just as quickly as he'd thrown Embrik to the ground and left him with this one and only warning, he was up again and walking away as though nothing at all had taken place, sheathing his blades. Embrik, however, took quite a few minutes longer before he felt brave enough to even sit up from where he still lay.

* * *

Alekt sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he returned from checking some of the work the men had reported was finished. All of the entrances they could find were checked and sealed up, good and tight, so no more dragons or potential dragon-riders could hide above them, ready to swoop down. Their rations were stocked well enough for a few days. There was no signs of immediate trouble that needed their attention.

Of course, he wasn't fool enough to think they could relax. Finding confrontation was not an _if_ scenario, it was a matter of when. Keeping the men alert and ready until trouble presented itself was going to be the trick. The longer nothing happened, the more lax they would become.

At least the caged dragons kept the men somewhat on their toes. It was one of the few reasons he didn't try to talk them out of their fear of the beasts, instead manipulating their instincts to be ready for danger, only from a perceived force rather than the real one.

He stuffed a few papers, some blank and others not, under his arm and grabbed a chair with another to haul towards the one cage that held something other than a dragon. He was sure the occupant didn't believe he wasn't, though.

He pulled the cloth aside from it and was immediately being watched by the figure within, two eyes equally as green as the Fury's. Unlocking and swinging the cage door open, he set the chair inside backward-facing and rested his arms over the top.

"Hello," he greeted. The dragon-man watched him warily from a distance, though Alekt had made it a point to set his chair outside the reach of the chain, by just a little bit. He noted those hues scouring his form and hovering for a moment over the sickle at his side, Alekt following his eyes.

"So you saw that, did you?" Alekt mused, though he already knew the man probably didn't understand him very well, if at all. He'd learned the past couple days, with the few remotely human sounds that he'd gotten out of him, that the dragon-man's vocabulary was increasingly limited. Alekt knew three year old children who knew more words. That was going to be troublesome, but probably not nearly as hard as trying to communicate with the Fury had been. That had been a truly frustrating experience, and Alekt didn't get frustrated easily. Not even by a tiny prick.

The dragon was intelligent, which could bode either good _or_ bad for them, but perhaps they could find some sort of middle ground to work together. So far, the dragon-rider was looking to be that middle-ground. If he could only get them to understand each other.

When the man's eyes stopped watching his sheathed blades worriedly, they went to the paper Alekt had in interest. The last time he'd tried to talk to the wild-man, he'd made a few noises, a few very clumsy words. It had taken him a while, but Alekt had finally figured out that what the man was interested in was the paper.

Once he'd figured that out, he knew how he was going to proceed this time, hoping for the best.

"You want this?" Alekt indicated, waving the sheets of paper faintly. The way that the man's eyes followed them like a dog watching a fresh steak was mildly amusing. It seemed he liked paper. "You do, don't you?"

There was a moment of thoughtfulness and concentration, like the man was trying hard to understand and figure out what he was trying to say, before he answered in what might have been Nordic, though it was heavily broken and clumsily spoken.

"Isss."

"Then I'll give it," Alekt said, careful to enunciate and give a little time for the man to at least attempt processing what he was saying. "But first you help me with something." His words didn't seem to reach anywhere that understood, so he decided to continue on without repeating.

Alekt pointed somewhere to the side, questioning, "The dragon, his name is _Tt-th-ss_?"

The man perked slightly, and it only seemed to take him a few seconds to understand parts of it, at least, though he said nothing, as if still trying to decipher exactly what he was asking and to see if Alekt would try to communicate again. "The dragon is _Tt-th-ss_?" he repeated.

"Isss. Drakkkn, _Tt-th-ss_!" the man chirped. He seemed to get joy and excitement out of anything involving that dragon, even the vaguest mention of him.

Alekt nodded. "Okay. So, _Tt-th-ss_, dragon's name," he indicated with a small, sideways motion. Next, he vaguely waved towards the man indicatingly. "And your name is…?"

That was the point at which he lost him again, but Alekt was patient. Maybe he should try something else. He made a motion again sideways, repeating _Tt-th-ss_, then to himself as he vocalized, "Alekt", and then motioned to the man again.

It took a few more moments of thought, before the man caught on, and made a noise, sort of a click and then a pop. Alekt had a small bit of trouble with it at first, but noticed the man brighten slightly when he got closer to the same noise.

"_(click)-uhp?_"

"Isss!" the man yelped happily. Alekt nodded, taking a sheet of paper, and holding it out.

"Good." The man – _(click)-uhp_ – eyed the paper in a way that was both wary and wanting, but he didn't move closer. Just like his dragon, he was being careful, and distrustful. He supposed that was only natural, and fair, at this point.

Despite his unwillingness to get closer, Alekt could see how much he wanted the sheet, but Alekt wasn't going to compromise on this one. Either he had to come forward, or he wouldn't get it. _(click)-uhp_ was watching the paper, but Alekt saw his eyes wander and stop at the indents in his arm with a knowing sort of look that made him shift uneasily. He was sure the man recognized the teeth-marks of his own pet dragon, and became more wary than before.

It wasn't bad at all, barely having scratched the surface. Alekt knew that the Fury could have done a lot more damage, or probably taken his arm entirely, if the dragon had sincerely wanted to. It had been a conscious choice on the reptile's part to leave him with little more than a prick. He was sure _(click)-uhp _knew that he would have been much worse off if _Tt-th-ss_ had intended on it, too.

Alekt only shrugged.

"It's not bad. _Tt-th-ss_ was only scolding me." That was as close and simple as he could think to describe it anyway. The Fury didn't like to be touched; he knew that. He had pressed his luck when trying, when the dragon was no longer muzzled and then cornered. But the dragon had still only left him with what basically amounted to a warning.

_(click)-uhp _looked as though he was trying to decipher what he'd said, but only caught hints. Either way, Alekt was sure that his disregard of it probably got the message across, if not the words. He couldn't be sure, though.

There was a look of intense concentration on the dragon-man's face for a long while, and he looked to be struggling with something internally, before he finally tried to speak again. Mostly it was animal sounds he could barely make sense of, but it was questioning, and he caught "drakkkn" in there somewhere, those feral hues shifting to the other cages lined up next to his.

Alekt didn't have a difficult time guessing what he wanted, turning his head.

"We're…" he paused, trying to find a simple way of explaining. He wasn't used to having to dumb down his speech, but he had no choice in this instance. "-catching dragons… to help us create something. We're learning, using them. When we're done, we let them go free." At least half of his words were wasted breath, as was evident by the confused concentration on _(click)-uhp_'s face. He truly wasn't sure how to simplify it more than that and still get his message across.

He supposed he'd have to adjust his tactics – again.

He held up one of the pieces of paper. One of the ones that was marked with sketches. _(click)-uhp _brightened and became more focused. The thing on the page was a sketch of a dragon from above, with its wings splayed out, and markings for dimensions and scale.

"I need dragons to make these," he said, pointing and hoping that the two together would make the man understand a little better. After _(click)-uhp_ had stared for a good while, he shifted it to the back, to show him a new one, this time of a different species of dragon, and another one after that. "Then, I let them go free," he said, motioning over his shoulder to the cave entrance. "You understand?"

"Isss," _(click)-uhp _responded.

"Good." Alekt nodded approval. "And I need these-" he motioned to the drawings of dragons again, then flipped to other ones. This time, it was preliminary sketches, basically blueprints, of designs for artificial wings. "To make these. Wings. For Vikings to fly. You understand?"

_(click)-uhp _looked perplexed, and Alekt wasn't sure if he didn't understand the words, or if he didn't understand what – or _why_ – they were trying to do that. Either one was a fair guess.

Either way, he almost wriggled eagerly where he was as he eyed them, like he wanted to pounce all over them, and whined in an anxious-eager sort of manner as though he couldn't decide between his desire to see them closer or his sense of caution and self-preservation.

_(click)-uhp _pointed somewhere at the floor, uttering, "Kkh-fff?" Alekt had no idea what that was supposed to mean, and the man was quickly losing patience with him, looking up at him rather than the paper now, though his eyes still occasionally flicked to them. This time he made a motion, toward himself, but then at the same spot again, and repeated himself. "Kkh-fff?"

Alekt had to think on that a moment more, trying to place a word to the sounds. He tried going down a list of words starting with the first sound and line one up, but nothing came immediately to mind that would fit the situation. But he did recall the way that the man said 'dragon', and thought maybe it was an entirely different starting sound he meant. Okay, so a 'g' sounding word, perhaps?

He rolled the sounds over and over on his tongue silently, and realized what it was.

"Give?" he tried, watching the man perk slightly and motion again more insistently, purring approvingly.

"Kkh-fff!"

Alekt held them out, but _(click)-uhp_'s temper flared, looking impatient.

"Nuh! Herrr-" he motioned at the floor again, about halfway between them. "Kkh-fff!"

"No," Alekt stated, crisply and clearly. "You come here. _Then_, I give."

That much, the man understood, huffing audibly in disdain and further growing impatience.

"Nuh!"

"Then I won't give," Alekt stated simply, ignoring the dirty look he was receiving. It didn't matter either way. Alekt could wait. He didn't think the man was anywhere near as patient as his dragon would be. Not with the way that he'd been eyeing the papers.

And he was right. After a great stretch of time had passed, with _(click)-uhp _trying to be angry, trying to pretend to ignore him, and trying to act like he was no longer interested and chatter to his dragon two cages away, he crept slightly closer. Only by two steps, but closer, still. His curiosity was greater than his stubbornness.

"Kkh-fff?" he indicated, though he stayed where he was, still maintaining some distance. Alekt eyed him levelly and held them out.

"Come here, and you can have them."

_(click)-uhp _eyed him and chattered nervously, the Fury answering him, and didn't move even an inch forward for a good few minutes. His eyes once again lingered on the blades at Alekt's side in a vulnerable sort of uncertainty, but when he seemed to deem it not immediately risky, he crept forward, one small bit at a time. When he reached out his chained hands, he touched the paper's edge then immediately jumped back, watching to see if something would happen, as though expecting a trap, and chattering more dragonic sounds.

When Alekt didn't so much as twitch, he moved closer again, reaching out. He froze when he touched the edge of the paper again, watching Alekt intently and barely breathing at all. Then, when he deemed it okay, he abruptly yanked the papers away and retreated to the far end away from Alekt, still eyeing him as he crouched down in the corner. Still making those same bestial noises.

When he finally relaxed somewhat, and his attention turned to the paper clutched in his hands, the noises didn't stop, only quieted slightly, as his eyes traced the drawings in child-like fascination. Alekt could almost see the man's mind working, making sense of what he was seeing with a great sense of interest and perhaps even outward excitement.

As far as the blue-eyed brunette was concerned, that was good. Very good indeed.

When _(click)-uhp_ finally stopped being transfixed by the drawings, he looked back up at Alekt with mixed emotions that were overcast by confusion and worry. Alekt figured that the man had probably managed to figure out _what_ he wanted using the dragons, now. The part that he likely didn't know was the _why_.

That was going to be a lot harder to explain.

He heard _(click)-uhp_ make a noise of question that needed no greater translation.

"It would help us. Something to help us live better. To make sure we don't die as much."

"Drakkkn?" the feral inquired, increasing concern etching his features.

"No, not to use against dragons. Other Vikings. They're our biggest enemies. It would help us fight and live." Again, most of his words were lost, but the other relaxed slightly. He seemed to understand at least that Alekt wasn't out to go after, fight, and kill dragons. It was probably a fair guess that _(click)-uhp _had been worried about that for a long time, but of course, most people, Viking or otherwise, were actively against dragons.

_(click)-uhp_ spoke to him again, "Drakkkn-", something he couldn't understand, then questioning, "_(click)_-uudt? Bad?"

"Do I think the dragons are good or bad?" He received a small, indicative nod, _(click)-uhp_ watching him carefully. Alekt closed his eyes for a moment and hummed. "Such a subjective question, isn't it?" He opened his eyes again, only met with a frustrated stare as his words were once again lost to the man's limited range of language. "Dragons… Vikings… no one is good or bad, really. Everyone's just trying to live." When he was met with more confusion, he clarified, "No good. No bad. Just trying not to die, right?"

He thought maybe the man understood a little more than anything he'd said previously and looked down at the paper, though it was more as if he was looking _through_ it, at something else beyond. What he'd said had obviously struck a chord somewhere, but for what reason or what sort of chord, Alekt had no idea.

Extending his hand, Alekt motioned, catching _(click)-uhp_'s attention as he spoke.

"Give." The dragon-man eyed him again warily, but crept closer. Still cautious, but slightly quicker than the first time, extending the papers, just until Alekt had a hold on them, then quickly retreated again.

Re-organizing them, Alekt shifted his eyes to _(click)-uhp_, who was still watching him carefully.

"Hungry?" When he was met with a confused stare, he thumbed over his shoulder towards the fire. "Hungry? Fish? Meat?"

"Isss! Fssshh!"

Alekt merely nodded and stood, taking his paper and chair to put away, before he'd go and get something for the man to eat.

* * *

"Anything interesting to report from the patrol?" Alekt questioned as he met with the returning party who had went to make sure nothing around the island seemed amiss.

"There was a trade ship that came through earlier today, coming from the east. We saw it on the waters and waved it down," one of the men stated.

"And?"

"Not much to say, but he said there's another band of people in the area, a few miles away. Trappers. 'been catching and slaying dragons all over the waters and coasts nearby."

Alekt hummed, placing a hand to his chin in thought.

" 'might not like competition," the man continued. "You know how some of these trappers are. And if they find out we have a…a Night Fury…"

Alekt nodded his head, dropping his arms back to his side.

"What sort of trappers? Live or dead catches?"

The man shifted uncertainly. "I'm… not sure, sir, but probably dead."

"Maybe," Alekt hummed. "Did you ask what sort of traps they're using?"

"All kinds. Steel traps, nets, snares, pits…"

Alekt nodded his head. It was impossible to distinguish for certain. The likeliest was that the dragons were killed, but not every trapper slayed dragons. At least not immediately. Those with enough experience and gal sometimes took live ones, especially babies or fledglings. Live dragons could be used for a lot of things. Some could be turned loose on enemies. Other times, they took them to pits to use to train young ones or for entertainment. Very rarely, they sold them to collectors and those who liked their exotic pets. It was almost entirely unheard of, but it did happen from time to time.

"Perhaps… we should consider picking up and moving, sir?" one of the others suggested subtly. "They could interfere with our work, or even kill us for our catches."

"No," Alekt stated with finality, raising a hand to still any further suggestions or protests.

Already his mind was hard at work trying to piece together how he could exploit this new development. He needed an opportunity to gain the cooperation of the dragon-rider and his Fury, and he had to do it quickly before further trouble could befall them. That opportunity was almost falling right into his lap. All he had to do was manipulate it to his advantage.

"I think this might just work to our favor." He fixed azure hues on the both of them. "Where did the trader say they were camped?"


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** We're at about that half-way mark, maybe closer, to being done with this fic ^_^ Also, I have some art of Alekt and his horse, Sangrida, on DA which is linked on my profile page here on FFN, if anyone wants to go and check it out~

* * *

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

What met Hiccup's senses at first was not the becoming-familiar scene of light poking in through openings between metal branches or the sounds of his Toothless-_heart-of-mine_ crooning socially at him or the mixed smell of _pfikingr_ and fire and nearby dragons and stone and a faint tinge of salty water on the breeze or the unmoving ground of a cold metal floor.

It was the darkness of something that clung to his face and a cracking-creaking noise like swaying trees and the overpowering smell of wet wood and _pfikingr_ and salt and fish as he felt the ground pitch and sway in nauseating tandem beneath him.

His head felt _strange tired blurry_ and despite how much he tried to search his memory he couldn't remember anything after eating another fish that the _E-e-kTT _had brought him that tasted kind of strange but not bad-strange and being overcome by sudden exhaustion that wouldn't let go despite that he tried not to sleep.

His front paws were still bound together, but instead of in front of him so he could still mostly use them they were behind his back and left him feeling more vulnerable than ever and he had to resist whimpering because he could not see and he could not move well and did not know where he was or what had happened or what was going on.

And then it hit him that he doesn't know if he's alone but he knows he doesn't smell dragons at all and he mewled out plaintatively _Toothless? Where Toothless here yes?_

He wasn't answered and the same strange _sickshiveringcoldnotcold _feeling from the first night he and Toothless had been forced apart was hitting him like a wave all over again and making him tremble but he had been getting kind-of used to being apart and been able to get rid of the bad shivering and heart-cold knowing that his Toothless_-minelove_ was not hurt and they were still close enough to talk and reassure each other and he yearned to be physically close to his other half but he could tolerate their seperateness somewhat so long as he and his other and the dragons were not being hurt.

This time was different and far worse. Toothless was nowhere to be heard or smelled or seen and Hiccup had no idea at all what had happened to him and if he was alive or hurt or even killed or left somewhere without him but _E-e-kTT _had promised that he would not hurt dragons but even dragons lied so _pfikingr_ could lie too and what was to say it had not been a lie and Hiccup had simply been _foolish reckless bad dumb _to believe him?

Toothless had good ears and Hiccup thought he could have answered but he tried again louder, crying out _Toothless here love here where you me here safe not hurt yes Toothless-love mine here!_

Still there was no answer and the bad feeling in him grew and he struggled and writhed and cried out and breathed too fast and too hard until his head swam dizzingly so he had to stop and then tried again when his head felt less light and he didn't stop again even when his throat started to ache because he was _COMPLETELY_ _alone_ without his other half there and could not hear or smell or taste or see him in a strange place he didn't know and did not know if his Toothless_-_self needed him or not and E-e-kTT had really just been _bad lie tricky hurt separate bad pfikingr take Toothless-love bad lie lie enemy _and he and his other heart could not live separate because they had to be _TOGETHER_ and it was wrong not to be because they were never apart and were not meant to be apart and always, _always, ALWAYS, __**ALWAYS**_ together no matter what badness happened and it felt like his neck was in a hanging-holding trap so that he could scarcely _breathe _and it was _all, too, MUCH._

He froze as the ground jolted him slightly and there were many, many scraping noises from beneath him like tens of dragons scratching from beneath him and he tried to breathe though it hurt to try and listen to all the scratching and rolling of the ground in anxiety-ridden curiosity and called out again for Toothless but neither his dragon-half nor any other dragons answered him and the ground suddenly stopped moving and there were loud steps and odd screeching noises like those of the cage doors that Hiccup had learned to recognize and grabbing of above his front paws so that he was lifted off the ground and he knew the smell and sound of _pfikingr_ and snarled and fought anew and blindly tried to bite the rough _pfikingr_ paws that pulled him forward from each side but he couldn't find flesh.

The stuffy wet-wood air became more clear and he could feel wind and faint sunlight on his fur and chattered _nervous worry scared strange where confused alert frightened alone Toothless gone nervous bad very bad_.

He heard a sound now that was finally familiar, that _stonesick_ voice of E-e-kTT from not far, speaking in the _pfikingr_ tongue, and then the face-clinging thing came off and Hiccup had to squint and blink as his eyes adjusted to the sudden onslight of light and open sky and rocky coast and trees that were not familiar to him and E-e-kTT watching him in that way that made it impossible to read any sort of feeling or thoughts off him like he could with most everything else that spoke with their eyes and body and tone.

The binding-things came off of his front paws and he wasted not a second in flinging himself away from the _pfikingr_ once he was partially free and whirled and snarled and looked for his dragon-half but Toothless was nowhere to be seen.

He didn't get to think on it long because something came flying towards him and he ducked back and eyed his claws that sat now in front of him and then to E-e-kTT who was watching him stone-faced.

Hiccup wasted no time in taking those and slipping them on and it was _so _good to be free of cages and binding-things and have his claws back but he was still without Toothless so nothing was really alright and not much better than before at all.

_Toothless where take you no hurt better not where love tricky liar enemy where Toothless-mine where!_ he demanded angrily but E-e-kTT was not listening and turned to say something to his other _pfikingr_ and made Hiccup even more anxious-furious and the dragon-man let out a roar and leapt at him and pushed him into the rock. E-e-kTT did not go down easily and rolled him over and flipped Hiccup through the air with his feet and was back to his own even before Hiccup was.

The dragon-man's eyes only briefly flitted to the side but the other _pfikingr_ did not move to attack though they looked as if they wanted to and why that was Hiccup had no idea unless they thought this was an Alpha's challenge because so far it seemed like E-e-kTT was the Alpha – _Chfff?_ – of these _pfikingr_ even though he was much smaller and younger and lighter than any of them but Hiccup had learned both from experience and from watching that he was cleverer and quicker and more skilled and could even talk almost-dragon a little bit so maybe that was how he was their Alpha whereas most other _pfikingr_ were clumsy and slow and not very smart at all and could not speak even _close _to right so Hiccup would have to be extra careful but he would still not back down because he was still a _dragon_ and one that could take on a Queen and challenge a _pfikingr_ Alpha and he was not afraid!

They circled a few steps, watching each other, but Hiccup was frustratedly unable to read E-e-kTT's face for his intentions while he felt like a hatchling trying to pretend it was a hunter stalking its mothers tail because he knew he could not make himself unmoving like stone in the same way and the other was too good at reading things without being read.

Hiccup finally moved one way, but it was a feint, and he quickly tried to strike the other direction, both of them tumbling over the ground again, over, and over, and over so that the world spun and every move he tried to make E-e-kTT reciprocated and adapted to it but Hiccup still came out on top and pinned the _pfikingr _into the stone with his claws positioned precariously to finish the _pfikingr_ by the neck if he had to but at some point in their tumble E-e-kTT had pulled his long sharp-claw and had it placed just as close to the vulnerable spot of Hiccup's own throat so that both had each other in a tricky tied position.

All it would take for either one of them to claim victory was to twitch just a little faster than the other, but as soon as Hiccup moved even the most miniscule degree, so did E-e-kTT, but no further than Hiccup did. The dragon-man drew a single bead of red from the surface-flesh, and so did E-e-kTT, and they sat like that for a moment staring at each other as Hiccup tried to figure out what to do and thought maybe the young _Chfff_ was trying to figure out what to do too but he couldn't tell past those barricaded blue eyes.

_Where Toothless-love where you take bad liar trapping pfikingr where tell now!_

E-e-kTT finally spoke to him now rather than at the others and Hiccup could make out 'Toothless' but nothing else and found himself infuriated now more than ever that he could not understand the _pfikingr_ and the _pfikingr_ could not speak right so that he could understand them properly. The man continued to say something and Hiccup also caught 'dragon' in there somewhere as the man turned his eyes toward the top of his head to look somewhere else and Hiccup hesitated a moment before slowly following his eyes into the trees.

His attention was only diverted for half a second, but it was enough for E-e-kTT to move and throw him off and Hiccup howled rage as he flipped from his back onto his feet again and bared his claws and teeth towards the human, but E-e-kTT had lost interest in fighting him, if he had ever had it at all, and instead looked at him expectantly and motioned towards the trees with his head and walked away and turned his back which was strange and crazy and _reckless_ but E-e-kTT had never really made much sense even by _pfikingr_ standards of nonsense.

With great wariness, Hiccup followed into the tree-line from a distance and spared a glance back but it was only him and E-e-kTT and the others did not look as though they would follow so he focused mainly on following and seeing where the _Chfff_ was trying to take him and hoping maybe it was to Toothless though for what reason or why from the boat and not the cave they had started in he had no idea unless they had somehow moved everything to someplace else and somehow Hiccup had not wakened to notice.

E-e-kTT stopped just ahead of him and made a strange sound that wasn't _pfikingr_ or dragon but that Hiccup vaguely knew, three sort of croaking barks, and then was answered by something from far away just before Hiccup saw the black bird that sometimes followed and perched on and ate with E-e-kTT take flight from the shadow of a fir branch.

E-e-kTT followed it and Hiccup began to follow as well though every sense was trained and he could never remember being quite this anxious or uncertain because he had never gone hunting or prowling or _anywhere at all_ without _his_ Toothless there and it was strange and wrong and he did not like it at all and would rather fight many, many Queens or Alphas all at once so long as he could be with his Toothless-self than to be without him.

They came to a tall rock wall that Hiccup did not know and E-e-kTT said something in a mix of black-bird noises and _pfikingr_ and watched the bird fly up the rock and back and forth before landing somewhere.

E-e-kTT finally looked at him and Hiccup tensed warily with no idea what was to come but then the human jerked his head upward and flexed his hands over the black sharp-claws and started to use the hooked weapons to catch crags and ledges the same way Hiccup often used his dragon-gloves and claws and started to heave himself up the cliff.

Hiccup eyed it uncertainly and made a noise of question _follow there Toothless-mine follow maybe go there maybe yes? _but E-e-kTT did not answer him, probably for lack of understanding, and Hiccup growled _no listen frustration bad distrust liar bad pfikingr_, but he followed because he still held out hope that Toothless would be there and as they climbed further Hiccup could smell a mix of _pfikingr_ and dragon and his hopes rose so he climbed harder and faster and reached the mouth of a cave at about the same time as E-e-kTT did where the bird waited for them.

Hiccup was uncertain about going forward into the darkness or where the human was leading him but the second he started to make a noise to call for Toothless the _pfikingr_ smacked him in the side with the not-sharp side of the sharp-claw and made Hiccup jump with a snarl as the man gave him a look he thought he could read as _be quiet!_

Hiccup was more confused than ever when the _pfikingr_ prowled forward quietly in a way that he immediately recognized as hunting but he had been told that they did not hunt dragons and did not know what else it could be but he followed along quietly through the darkness which was hard to see in but his eyes soon adjusted just enough to follow E-e-kTT through the darkness.

_Why hunt why promised no dragon hunting why confused worried lied?_ E-e-kTT only hissed near-silent at him and Hiccup stopped trying to find out why or what they were hunting and figured he would find out soon and if it was dragons then he could probably warn them or kill the _pfikingr_ if necessary but for now he would listen and watch.

He could still smell the scent of human and dragon mixed together but it was stronger now then before and while it was the smell of dragons it was not the smell of ones he knew and there was a sense of hurt and blood in it that made the fur on his head prickle uneasily and he hoped not to find Toothless there at the same time desperately wishing his needed other half were here with him because he did not like to feel unknowing and vulnerable and alone and certainly not with a _pfikingr_ that was dangerous and clever and quick enough to best him alone but with Toothless he was unstoppable and he wished so very very much to have his other self here now so much that it physically hurt.

E-e-kTT paused and straightened up as the cave bent to the side and there was the faintest flicker of light to see by. The man peered his head around the corner and motioned for Hiccup to stay back with his weapon before creeping around the corner in a low slink. Curious and worried of what the _pfikingr_ might be hunting, Hiccup only went far enough to see around the corner to where there was a _pfikingr_ standing somewhat further down that did not seem to notice them and only now did Hiccup realize that E-e-kTT was hunting that _pfikingr_. And that only made him more confused.

He watched in fascination as E-e-kTT prowled and ducked through the darkness and behind crags silently and skillfully, more stealthily practiced than he had ever seen a _pfikingr_ be. Much of the time _pfikingr_ were loud and clumsy and did not hide terribly well.

E-e-kTT came right up behind the other _pfikingr_ easily without detection, so close that one step back would have them trip over him, and ended them with only a muffled noise and a quick slash of his sharp-claw at their throat. It was strange and astonishing and perhaps a little horrifying watching a human kill another in that way. He knew that sometimes _pfikingr_ fought and killed each other as well as dragons and wild animals but he had never seem them do so like this. So efficiently and quietly.

E-e-kTT lingered over them for a moment and made sure they were truly dead before motioning for Hiccup to follow him further down the cave. When he did, he glanced over the body in passing and confirmed for himself that it had only taken one clean strike to the vulnerable spot on his neck and he knew that if E-e-kTT had really wanted to he probably could have done the same to Hiccup many times over by now but for some reason he did not see Hiccup or the dragons as enemies like most _pfikingr_ and he was not sure at this point what about him was stranger.

The smell and now sounds of _pfikingr_ activity and dragons and heat and soot and blood was stronger and E-e-kTT crouched onto his belly once they reached the ledge and Hiccup followed him. This cave was larger. It was not much more wide, at the bottom, but it panned out wider at the top where they were and went deeper, with many overhanging ledges.

Below, _pfikingr_ milled about, but there were many more of them than there were in E-e-kTT's own stone-nest, and there were more things. Pits of heat with lumps of metal and sharp-claws and heavy-striking things, long wood eating-places, pens with animals that _pfikingr_ raised and sometimes dragons carried away to eat(not like the _preynoprey_ things but actual prey-things), traps, and large dragon-cages that had dragons in them.

When Hiccup squinted and leaned and tried to look closer though, he could see and smell faintly that these dragons were not kept nicely the way E-e-kTT kept trapped dragons. They were what Hiccup was most used to seeing with dragon-trappers in that their catches were tired and weak and not cleaned after and sick and had torn wings and missing limbs and bad wounds and they did not shy back only with confusion and fear that came out of strangeness and uncertainty but coiled and curled and splayed in a way that Hiccup intimately knew was because they were _suffering_.

Hiccup snarled under his breath and crouched on the ledge in a leaping-ready kind of way and wanted to descend down and do something but he still knew he did not have Toothless with him and that it would be too reckless even for him to do such without his partner with him.

He was aware of E-e-kTT watching him and he could almost hear Toothless in his head reprimanding _no reckless crazy no dangerous silly you always alert bad stay no_ even if the dragon was not there to scold him from doing it.

E-e-kTT shifted next to him and pulled out paper and something to draw with, craning his head out and his eyes flicking from one area to another in calculation before he began to draw and look and draw again. Hiccup recognized it as the cave from one angle and when the other was done he flipped that paper to the bottom and drew it again but in a different way, very roughly and quickly.

When he had filled another page he tucked them away into hiding again and crawled backward and onto his feet, turning to leave the same way they had come in. He did not say or motion but Hiccup still knew he was to follow though their purpose for coming was a mystery to the dragon-man. Why come here to see trapped and hurt dragons of other _pfikingr_ and then make drawings and simply leave again?

Once again, it made little sense to him.

As they left, the _pfikingr_ picked the dead one onto his back and carried them out, rather than leaving them behind. It was another thing that didn't make sense to him, at first. When they came into open air, he carelessly tossed the body down, which clattered across the rocks to the bottom, and then swiveled around and descended himself carefully.

Hiccup hesitated and looked between the cave and E-e-kTT, not sure whether to follow or stay, or if he was meant to do something, or if Toothless might be amongst those dragons somewhere even though he had not seen him. But why else were he and the dragon separated?

He didn't think he would get a proper answer, but he was anxiety-ridden and angry and desperate to know so he tried again despite that he was sure it was useless to do so.

_Where Toothless where alive safe yes please Toothless need where?_

To his disbelief, he got an answer. It was somewhat of a mix of dragon and _pfikingr_ speech, but he understood it perfectly.

_"Going to Toothless_," he answered with a motion of his head to follow, since his hands and sharp-claws were occupied with finding purchase on the stone. The confirmation that his dragon was alive was enough to excite Hiccup into following quickly. He hoped that it meant his other was also unharmed, but he would find out once they found him.

But he was still _alive_ and they were _going to him_ and for the moment that was enough to spur him on.


	11. Chapter 11

**Learning from the Masters  
****A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction  
****Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"**

* * *

After descending the cliff, Alekt covered their tracks and made sure to take the corpse out into the woods and brought the local crows swarming in with attention calls so that they would make short work of it, and bring any other carnivorous scavengers looking for an easy meal, too. By the time anyone was aware of it, it would be impossible to discern if the killer had been man or beast.

Unnamed things happened all the time to careless vagrants, after all. What was to say some Changewing or stealthy mountain lion hadn't been hunting and dragged them off quietly?

Getting _(click)-uhp_ to follow him down the cliff and to the shore was the easy part. Convincing him to get back on the knar without force was less so. Even telling him that they were returning to where _Tt-th-ss_ was almost wasn't enough. Almost. But when Alekt played strategy, he played it well, and he had all of this worked out ahead of time.

He'd predicted that _(click)-uhp_ would be furious with him to find himself alone and without his dragon, but he knew he could handle it, and had told the men not to rush to his defense, since a cornered animal was a more irrational one.

The feral wouldn't kill him without knowing where to find his dragon unless he thought the Fury was dead, or he had been banking on as much anyway. He might have miscalculated that, but in the end, he had still come out of it and managed to do what he intended.

The next part of his plan should seal the deal. _(click)-uhp_ saw the dragons and the trappers and found an enemy he obviously despised and distrusted more than he did Alekt and his lot. As the saying went, _the enemy of my enemy_. He didn't know that he'd go so far as for them to call each other _friends_ any time soon, but perhaps they would be on neutral ground, at least.

The men went about working and Alekt made sure all of them were too busy to pay _(click)-uhp_ much mind, so the dragon-man was slightly less nervous, though he didn't seem to like being on a ship enough to relax. That didn't mean he wasn't curious about the workings of the ship and watching the men go about their business as much out of interest to learn as out of caution.

Alekt saw him watching the men tie knots and loosen ropes, adjust the sails or turn the rudder to adjust coarse as the wind tried to set them a different path. Sometimes he would look over the edge of the railing or the back at the waves and the paths of white foam that trailed behind. He held a certain fascination towards all of it, like a child. Not one who had never seen such things, but had never seen them truly in action to where he could see how it was done right.

Occasionally _(click)-uhp_ would get a little closer to things that interested him, to the men, but never within arms or weapons' reach, and Alekt tailed close in case he would need to intervene if something happened or a conflict of any kind arose. Though _(click)-uhp_ was good at keeping a healthy enough distance to avoid such things, and retreat if he started to feel boxed in anywhere.

Either because he had grown bored or simply overwhelmed by the uncensored proximity to so many Vikings, he retreated to a part of the ship where the activity was less. Likely he needed space. He was still like a wild animal, and Alekt didn't doubt _(click)-uhp_ probably believed as much about himself with every fiber of his being. Other than the occasional, clumsy word of broken Nordic, he didn't really show any acknowledgement of being human. Either he couldn't fathom the idea, or he didn't want to. Either way, Alekt wouldn't force him to. He didn't care one way or the other, he only needed help to accomplish his goals. Whatever _(click)-uhp_'s personal beliefs were was irrelevant.

Alekt stood by and watched as well. While he could do a moderate job, sailing was not one of his or his clan's strengths. They lived much further inland than most Norsemen, so it wasn't necessary, even less so with their truce with other allied clans at the moment.

That didn't mean he didn't know how to navigate to a respectable degree, paying acute attention to their course and the shift of the wind.

"Adjust thirty degrees East," he called, the men immediately hopping to do so.

_(click)-uhp_ watched them go about their tasks with wary curiosity, balancing on the balls of his feet in a crouch rather than standing to full height, and turned green eyes towards Alekt, questioning "_Tt-th-ss?"_

Alekt only nodded and pointed in the direction they were headed and the island far ahead in the distance, barely visible.

"Yes, we're going to _Tt-th-ss_. There. See?"

"Isss."

Only after a few more minutes had passed, something else caught Alekt's eye, and the eye of his crew members, and _(click)-uhp_.

"Dragon!" one man shouted. Alekt saw it, and what he saw was that it was a rather _large_ dragon. Larger than a Nightmare, and bulkier.

"It's a Stormcutter," Alekt warned as he continued to watch it. Somewhere off to his side, _(click)-uhp_ barked excitedly, an odd sound like _"(click)-shhh-prrr!"_ and roared an eager greeting, answered in turn by the beast, but it didn't sound happy nor friendly.

Darting overhead, it circled around, turning with great precision, and came to land on the bow of the knar as the men parted away from it fearfully, making the ship tilt halfway towards sinking nose-down, effectively halting their progress and leaving them a sitting duck on the open waters.

The dragon snarled at them angrily and flared, many men drawing their weapons at the same moment they half-cowered and half-stood their ground, trying to gather up the courage to lunge at the enraged beast.

_(click)-uhp_ chattered with a mix of elation and distress, the beast snarling and roaring back at him with large eyes darting between the men who had not fully decided yet whether they were going to jump ship or fight it off, some taking a few experimental jabs towards it. It didn't help matters, the dragon spreading its wings threateningly and drawing itself up, roaring more furiously and ready to set their entire ship alight.

"Stop!" Alekt ordered sharply, stepping forward and pushing the men aside. _(click)-uhp_ was close behind him, more eager to reach the dragon than he was afraid to get close at the moment, though his claw-gloved hand twitched many times readily in case he would need to use them. "Stand down! All of you!" At first they didn't listen, not willing to back down from a dragon that had landed straight on top of their boat and was hissing and snarling angrily at them. "I said: _Stand. Down!_" Alekt ordered again, this time with even more force. The men obeyed, but no one relaxed.

At the same time that he was ordering the men not to engage in a fight, _(click)-uhp_ pushed past him and chattered to the dragon. It didn't relax either, but when swords, axes, and hammers lowered, it turned its attention to the dragon man and responded.

There were still a lot of growls and snarls and huffs, but they seemed more the kind of doting and alarmed scolding than true aggression even as the dragon towered menacingly over the smaller man, who was dwarfed by comparison of the beast, much more so than he had been by the Night Fury. _(click)-uhp_ was obviously not the dominant between them and was placatingly submissive.

There was so much overlapping vocalization to vastly varying degrees and different motions and signals that Alekt could not keep track of it all. So much communication. Alekt had mostly only _heard_ _(click)-uhp_ and _Tt-th-ss_ communicate but he had not _seen_ it to this level because they had kept the two separate from each other and all other dragons.

He could make sense of some of it, but there was a lot to try to recognize and process, and while his experience with crows and other animals had _helped_, it wasn't enough to bridge the gap. They were still quite different. Not completely, but enough.

He moved closer now that it seemed hostilities had subsided, but he was not forgotten. The stormcutter snarled at him and he froze. It wasn't a mindless vocalization and the dragon could not have communicated it any clearer if it had spoken pure Norse.

_One more step and you've crossed the boundary._

So much meaning behind only one sound. This dragon was much akin to the Fury in its intelligence. It might have been even more so, either by raw intellect or merely age and experience.

Honing in on him, the Stormcutter growled low in warning and stepped forward, Alekt matching it with a step back. The dragon watched him in calculating appraisal and moved another bit forward, and Alekt matched him again. The way that the beast eyed him, he wasn't sure if he truly had avoided a fight.

_(click)-uhp_ could have told the dragon anything, really. Even perhaps that they had done horrible things to him and the Fury and was turning the larger dragon loose on them. Alekt had thought through his plans carefully, but he knew that there was always that one wildcard that couldn't be factored in until it came into play. This was that wildcard, and Alekt would have to adjust accordingly and carefully.

The dragon advanced again, and he retreated, not out of fear, but only to maintain distance as he ran through what to do in his mind, his movements slow and non-abrupt but deliberate.

He grasped his blades and slowly unsheathed them just as he knew he'd be backed to the mast, the dragon growling both in challenge and wariness as it lowered its head and thinly parted its jaws at him.

He could _feel_ the Stormcutter's growl through the wood floorboards of the top deck. The dragon was healthily cautious of him and his weapons, mindful, but not afraid. Not in the least. No short amount of either skill on his part or mercy on its part was the only thing that would make or break whether or not he ended up in as a pile of smoldering ashes within the next few moments.

Its large eyes bore into him accusingly, but it didn't immediately attack. It was waiting to see what he would do, testing him. At least that was the sense that he got from it.

Lifting his blades to either side of him, he noticed the beast tense, snarling low sounds of uncertainty and warning, and then he dropped them, hearing them clatter on the wood but not taking his eyes off it. He wasn't afraid of the creature either, challenging it with his stare, unflinching, but all the same, acknowledging that he knew full well its superior strength. He was to hold his ground, not fight it.

The creature chattered at him, noises that had gone from hostile to wary, but there was a certain returned acknowledgement there too, rigidness leaving its form somewhat as the message passed between them both silently.

_I'm not your enemy._

Backing off, the dragon sounded something that might have been approval, seeming to have decided Alekt wasn't a threat. It was not so trusting as to turn its back, but it did refocus its attention back on _(click)-uhp_, snarling low and reprimanding. The interruption that Alekt had provided had not made it forget that it had been scolding the dragon-man before that.

The blue-eyed brunette retrieved his blades and strapped them back to his side, his men still gawking dumbly at everything that had just happened. At the very least, none of them had seemed dumb enough to go charging in during that judgment call period, when the Stormcutter had been assessing his worth.

"We're going back to your Night Fury," Alekt announced, catching _(click)-uhp_'s attention as well as the older dragon's. "To _Tt-th-ss_." He nodded to the men over his shoulder. "All of you, prepare to sail again." When no one immediately moved, he ordered crisply, "_Now_."

Once they scattered to rig the ship, he turned his attention back to the Stormcutter and _(click)-uhp_, motioning with a swift curl of his fingers. They didn't seem to understand, so he motioned with his entire hand this time, voicing, "Up. Off my ship."

The Stormcutter tilted its head at him, then at the boat, of which the nose was still tilted precariously close to having water spill over and fill the deck under the beast's weight. The dragon made a sound that might have been indignant realization, and _(click)-uhp_ clambered onto its shoulders just before it took flight, flapping above the ship.

Alekt nodded his approval and turned back to the men.

"We're sailing back to the cave," he announced. The men seemed nervous, eyeing the dragon flying above, but didn't argue. As they went about their work, setting course for the island they were temporarily calling home, Alekt slipped beneath deck.

Sangrida greeted him from a pen, and Alekt went about checking her tack, making sure it was still adequately secure, and then leading her onto the top deck once they drew close. The ship was already into the shallows by this point, and the Stormcutter and _(click)-uhp_ were waiting just on the shore at a deliberate distance.

The larger dragon seemed somewhat startled and shifted warily as Alekt leapt atop the mare's back and jumped her off the side of the boat, splashing onto land the last several yards. He pulled her to a stop, the horse dancing a few steps to the side. Both the dragon and feral chattered to each other, Alekt not having a hard time guessing what they were discussing.

"Have that ship secured but ready to sail again. This won't be the last use we see of it today," he ordered, then turned and commanded Sangrida into a gallop, blazing past the dragon and dragon-man into the trees and indicating for them to follow and match pace, through the forest and marshland, and the long ravine beyond that.

The Stormcutter's shadow cast over him most of the way, and he could hear its wings, so he didn't bother to look back and make sure they were following.

As they came closer to their camp, he heard distinctive wails and howls that he recognized as those of the Fury. It was answered in similar distress by _(click)-uhp_ and in uncertain anger by the Stormcutter, which overtook Alekt and swooped through the entrance just a third of a minute ahead of him.

Startled cries of Vikings met his ears and roars of the Stormcutter as it circled around the top of the cave above them, hovering for a moment and not daring to land as the men brandished weapons at the beast.

"Stand down!" Alekt ordered sharply, adding to their surprise. The men faltered, but when the Stormcutter landed, they snarled battle cries of alarm and habit, the dragon snarling warning and flaring itself up to full, intimidating height.

Alekt road between them, Sangrida kicking the air and bellowing, both sides backing off slightly.

"I gave you an order, now you follow it, unless you're really so eager to be ripped limbs from body."

Terrified silence overtook the group, but of course, there was always that one who wouldn't let the issue rest. It hadn't taken any effort on Alekt's part beforehand to guess who that person would be.

"_Stand down_?" Embrik hissed. "Alekt, do you know what's behind you? A _dragon_, totally free to kill us on the spot if it chooses, no chains or cages to stop it at all!"

"Yes, it's a dragon," Alekt deadpanned. "One that's already chosen of its own desire not to kill me," he added as he slid down from the saddle, and motioning behind him with a sweep of his hand. "But if you are dying to know that badly what the inside of ones stomach looks like, then by all means, ignore my orders."

He could see the fury flash across Embrik's eyes, but there was also fear and alienation, and not only for the dragon crouched behind Alekt. Since it seemed no one was daring enough to challenge either him or the Stormcutter any further, he turned his attention away from them.

The cries of the Fury had not ceased. If anything, they had grown in volume, frequency, and desperation, and now had everyone's acute attention.

_(click)-uhp_ was shrieking and crooning back in response so that it was entirely impossible to tell them apart in voice, and Alekt was well aware of the Stormcutter's eyes burning into his back as he went to the cage, holding a hand up to stop them from rushing toward it yet.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside, where the Fury was busy pacing and pulling at the chain and keening and wriggling. He'd had the muzzle returned before leaving with _(click)-uhp_ because he was absolutely certain the Fury would not simply leave without blasting open his confines to chase them and his dragon-boy otherwise, and the dragon gave him a heated glare as he entered.

Alekt held up his hands in a show of peace, a few noises of peace, and reached out for the muzzle, taking it off and tossing it aside. _Tt-th-ss_ shook his head in relief and immediately gaped his jaws to cry out to _(click)-uhp_ plaintively. Alekt circled around its side, and the beast swiveled to follow him, never trusting to let the man out of his sight. Alekt grasped the chain and indicated for the black dragon to come towards him more, and it did, though with reluctant distrust.

Then he did something that he had not yet dared to do and would most likely make all of his men think him completely nuts. He removed the chain from _Tt-th-ss_' neck entirely, nothing keeping him contained any longer.

Most would have seen it as the perfectly presented opportunity for the dragon to turn the tables, to attack and kill him, since the Fury was between him and the door now. Alekt knew better than to be afraid, because the dragon really didn't give a single rat dropping for him at this point.

It whirled around so quickly that Alekt had to duck to avoid its tail as it tore out of the cage straight for _(click)-uhp_ and bowled him over. If it hurt at all – and Alekt had a strong suspicion that it did – the feral man didn't seem to notice, too enthralled with properly greeting and reuniting with the Fury as they rolled over each other, butted heads, nuzzled affectionately, crooned and sang, rolled over some more, parted to dance and chase in a circle and laughed, before tackling again, rolling over each other once more, licked, batted arms and paws, knock each other over with playful shoves(or at least try to in _(click)-uhp_'s case), roll again, messily writhe around each other, submissively croon and placate the Stormcutter as it towered over and scolded them with shrieks and growls again, and then promptly went back to writhing and rolling and latched around each other with an overly needy possessiveness.

It seemed as if they'd entirely forgotten everything else at the moment, or the possibility of Alekt and his group being enemies, too caught up in becoming reacquainted with each other to even think of or care about anything else around them.

It was an odd but touching sight. Both dragon and dragon-man obviously loved each other. This went beyond a simple master-and-pet relation. This was something deeper and familial, like twins cut from the same cloth and inseparable despite the clear distinction of different species. Alekt didn't think that _(click)-uhp_ and maybe not _Tt-th-ss _either thought each other all that different though, as anything less than two dragons that found a need in each other. If they noticed, they didn't care. More likely was that they probably just didn't care to notice. Their being together seemed almost euphoric, and Alekt wasn't sure if it was only always like that or if the separation had truly been _that_ horrible to them both.

The man had no doubts that, if something tragic truly ever happened to one of them, especially if one died, the other would never recover. Perhaps even wither away and die themselves from the sheer loss. Just observing them from a distance, he could almost feel the unbridled connection they shared, more intense in just the one instance than any other relations he had seen.

Alekt stepped out and shut the cage, and was soon joined by Hartvig, who had taken the long way around the dragons to give them a fair distance.

"That Fury never once shut up for more than ten seconds since you left. He was rattling the entire cave with death throes without pause for hours. I was worried the other men would mutiny and kill the damn thing just to get it to shut up," he informed, laughing faintly, though there was an edge of seriousness to his voice all the same.

"Is that so?" Alekt hummed.

His eyes wandered to the men at this point, who were watching with both terror and amazement at the display the feral and Fury were putting on, seeming more like tumbling puppies than a terrifying Child of Lightning and Death and its equally wild rider.

The two finally became aware of their other surroundings again and looked to Alekt, with noises and expressions of mixed feelings; thanks, confusion, uncertainty, and undecided trust/distrust. They still clearly didn't know what to make of Alekt, but they at least didn't appear to think him an enemy, since he had had plenty of opportunity to have hurt or killed them while they had been trapped under his mercy, or what they had probably been sure would be a lack-thereof.

"Well, if you've all been well reacquainted…" Alekt hummed, stepping closer. All the while, he was being watched, not only by the dragons. He stopped just short, closely watching the dragons and dragon-man to judge how close was still safe. "We have something that needs doing. The dragons, in the other Viking's traps, the bad ones. We help the dragons, and you help us, yes?" He took out and unfolded the paper where he'd sketched out a map of the place from above, holding it up to see for emphasis.

He wasn't sure they understood, but _(click)-uhp_ started to chatter dragonic urgently, and he could only hope that he was explaining for the two dragons to understand. After some minutes had passed with the three talking and deliberating, _(click)-uhp_ looked back at Alekt, sitting up and crossing his arms, tilting his head up. There was calculation in his eyes, his lips silently twitching as if he was trying to figure out how to say something, but it took him a few moments to form the word.

"Drakkkn kkko Ffrree." He stumbled slightly over the last word, but Alekt understood it, especially once the man indicated to the cages.

Alekt nodded.

"Yes, the dragons will go free, but not until _after_."

_(click)-uhp _growled disapproval at him.

"Drakkkn kkko Ffrrrree!" The Fury added to his command with a roar of its own, backing up his rider.

"_(click)-uhp_ and _Tt-th-ss_ have to agree to help us, first. We help you free the _hurt_ dragons, from the bad Vikings," he said, with a note of domineering finality to his voice that caught them off guard, not backing down as he was sure they had been thinking he might, especially with _Tt-th-ss_ free to kill him if the Fury wanted and the larger Stormcutter behind them. "And you help us. No help, no freed dragons."

They dissolved into dragon sounds again, the Stormcutter included, before looking back at Alekt with wary reluctance. _(click)-uhp_ looked like he was struggling to find another word, before speaking again clumsily.

"H-e-e-pp pfikingr, drakkkn herrr kkko ffrree?"

"Yes," Alekt nodded.

_(click)-uhp _looked skeptical, and both he and _Tt-th-ss_ chattered to each other, trying to come to a decision, but he had given them no reason to doubt, so far. True, it had been purely for ulterior motive, but he could have done away with them if he'd truly decided he wanted to. They would have continued working, even without help. This, however, was the better choice. The path of least resistance, if only they could win favor.

It seemed as if they'd decided, _(click)-uhp_ and _Tt-th-ss _both staring at him with a look like _this had better not be a trick_, mirroring each other perfectly.

"Isss h-e-e-p pfikingr."

Alekt nodded his own approval.

"Gather around me," he called, this directed at the other men, who had been quite content to stay well out of range up to this point, save for Hartvig, who was a little less worried than the rest. More confident that Alekt knew what he was doing. He set the papers down, flattening them out on the stone. "Bring me small stones and paint."

"Well, you heard 'im!" Hartvig barked when everyone looked lost. "Get to it!"

With the sudden activity, the dragons became a lot more nervous, and flew up to perch on the tops of the cages where they could see everything from a safe distance and out of the way. They shifted uneasily as the Vikings warily made a circle around Alekt, and likewise the men were skittishly looking up at the beasts above them, wanting to be anywhere else.

Alekt kept the dragons primarily at his back, not so worried, and made sure they could see his papers just as well as the men.

The collection of stones, which collectively made up the same number as the men, dragons, dragon man, and the number of enemies he'd counted(plus a few more, in case he missed anyone), were painted different colors respectively.

He made sure to indicate to everyone, even to _(click)-uhp_ and the two dragons there. He had already figured ahead of time that explaining with words would get him nowhere, so he was hoping the visual aid would get the message across.

He explained that red were the _BAD pfikingr_, the blue the _good_ ones(them), yellow for the trapped dragons, green for the Stormcutter that the dragon-man said was _(click)-shhh-prrr_, and black for _(click)-uhp_ and the Fury, positioning them across the paper.

"Alright, so this is what we're going to do…"


End file.
